One Can Hope
by Raine and Robert
Summary: The final chapter...finally up, finally complete. Laurie and Raine reunite and face the ultimate...
1. Default Chapter

One Can Hope

By Raine Ishida and RobertDogwood

Final Fantasy VIII characters and locations from said game are owned by SquareSoft.

Original characters, locations and plot Copyright Raine Ishida and Robert Dogwood 2001

Sequel to _Laurie's Surprise_

Chapter One

It had been years since they were together. Raine couldn't exactly recall the last time she had laid eyes on her best friend from childhood in person, but she knew that she had still been a small child. Of course, they had continued to write each other all these years; at first because they so desperately missed each other, and later out of force of habit and neither one of them wanting to be the one, who stopped writing first. Raine didn't know why her friend had kept writing, but she knew for herself she would have felt that a piece of her childhood had died if she ceased the correspondence.

Of course through the years they had exchanged photographs of each other, along with pictures of new friends at first and later photo's of boyfriends, along with ritualistic presents at Christmas time that were as empty and devoid of emotional content as receiving a gift certificate to a store that wasn't located anywhere around you.

Raine didn't know about her friend, but she realized that she, herself, had been perilously close to not sending a gift this past Christmas nor any more letters, because it now seemed so pointless and such a waste of her precious time, but she just couldn't allow herself to be the one who broke the tenuous bond between them.

Consequently it came as quite a shock when a letter arrived in the mail from her old friend inviting her to spend two weeks with her during summer vacation. Raine accepted the invitation with some trepidation, because she wondered if she had anything left in common with her old friend and also not really wanting to spend precious vacation time away from her _real_ friends and her life-giving computer. But in the end, Raine accepted the invitation and appropriate dates were affixed.

Her flight from Canada had been relatively uneventful, although, truth be told, her two hour layover in New York had been quite frightening because of the preponderance of _weirdo's_ roaming the airport, although none of them had even glanced at her and, besides, there was plenty of airport security. Finally Raine was forced to put her fears of the entire situation down to her provincialism. 

The plane she was traveling on had gently touched the ground and was slowly taxiing to a stop. Raine gathered her carry-on possessions and unbuckled her seat belt, when the appropriate light flashed on. She stood up and waited by her seat until a spot opened up in the long line of passengers waiting to de-board the plane. While Raine patiently waited for her turn, she idly wondered what would draw so many people to such a backward place as Gloucester County Airport in rural New Jersey.

As the line slowly wended its way forward, Raine, being fortunate to not have a row mate, leaned over and squinted through the aircraft's small window to discover if she could catch a glimpse of her old friend when suddenly there she was! _She's much more prettier than her pictures_, Raine thought, feeling vaguely threatened on some level.

Straightening up, Raine noticed a small gap in the line and scurried to fill it, being careful not to hit anyone with her large carry-on bag. She had purposely placed everything she was going to need for her two week trip in it, so as to not have to wait for baggage claim, plus not having to worry that her clothes went on their way without her to Nome, Alaska or some such place. As she shuffled her feet in the permanently slow moving line, Raine's emotions fluctuated between being grateful the long flight was over safely and wishing she were still in the air somewhere over Canada, because of her impending sense of doom of discovering she no longer had anything in common with her old friend.

__

However will I get through the next two weeks? she wondered.

Suddenly Raine was in the passageway between the cockpit and the passenger section and was being thanked by the flight attendant for traveling with them and being nodded at by the tired looking co-pilot. She stepped lively down the outside temporary stairs that had been affixed to the side of the airplane door; not because she wanted to, but because the line of passengers now freed from their bondage of the narrow constricted-ness of the plane were now sweeping her along with them and she didn't want to be pushed or trip down the stairs and tumble to the ground.

__

That would be quite an entrance to New Jersey,_ wouldn't it_? Raine bemusedly thought.

Upon her safe arrival at ground level, Raine observed her friend rushing to her with her arms held wide in apparent readiness of offering an hug. "Raine!" she shouted.

Raine observed a pretty, young, slim figured, blue eyed woman with blonde hair, who was dressed in a long sleeved black blouse, tight black leather jeans and stylish black shoes rapidly approaching her. _Oh my God_! Raine thought, _She's a Goth_!

When Laurie flung herself at Raine culminating in a huge embrace, Raine dropped her carry-on bag in shock and attempted to not flinch. An attempt that apparently failed miserably, Raine realized as her friend immediately dropped her arms and stepped back, with a quizzical expression crossing her pretty features.

The person Laurie was scrutinizing was a slim, almost willowy, attractive green eyed young woman, taller than she, with wavy chestnut brown hair that fell just past her shoulder blades. Laurie exclaimed, "Oh, your outfit is darling!"

Indeed, Raine had attempted to wear the most stylish clothing she owned to travel on the plane. She was wearing a black knit blouse with a heart shaped neckline, a mid-thigh red skirt with black patterns, a gold chained belt and black mid knee boots. "Thank you," Raine was able to mutter in a low tone. Laurie spoke again as if reading Raine's mind. "And don't worry," she laughed, "I'm not a Goth, I just like to wear black."

Inside her mind, Raine breathed a sigh of relief. Laurie, totally ignoring the fact that her friend had hardly spoken since leaving the plane, suggested, "We should go get your suitcases."

Raine picked up her huge carry-on bag and explained, "It's all right here."

"Wow! They let you drag that big thing on the plane?" When Raine nodded, Laurie replied "Cool!" 

"Well, let's get going" directed Laurie and turned and set off on a semi-trot which pressed Raine to the utmost, due to her hauling her carry-on bag with her.

By the time Laurie had reached the airport parking lot, Raine was lagging a good fifty steps behind and muttering to herself about the utter discourtesy of her old friend. Laurie turned and waved her arm cheerily shouting, "It's over here!" As Raine slogged the last remaining steps, her friend waited patiently by a beat up appearing 1975 gray Chevy Impala, whose running engine was spewing copious amounts of deadly exhaust all over the parking lot.

As Raine drew near, Laurie stepped close and whispered, "My parents won't let me get my driver's license until my seventeenth birthday. This is my crazy old aunt. Don't say anything to her."

Indeed the woman who sat behind the steering wheel looked quite bizarre, to say the least thought Raine, as she gazed upon a redheaded woman with her hair in large curlers, who looked to be in her mid-thirties, weighing about two hundred pounds and was dressed in a humongous bathrobe and had a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth.

Laurie took Raine's carry-on bag from her hand, which had cramped in a claw like position and walked around the back of the old _junker_ and tapped lightly on the trunk. The red haired woman swung her head out of the window and growled, "Wait a minute, will ya?" Laurie's aunt apparently released the trunk's lock and it sprung open. As Laurie placed Raine's luggage in the car and slammed the trunk hard rocking the car somewhat, Raine grew even more worried about the next two weeks. _I'm in big trouble_, she thought, _if this is any indication_.

Quickly rejoining her friend, Laurie opened the left back door and whispered, "Get in the back seat. You don't want to ride up front. She'll put holes in your clothes from her cigarettes." Upon receiving that warning, Raine scrambled into the back with some alacrity and Laurie quickly followed.

The driver immediately slapped the car into gear and drove off with a squeal from the under inflated back tires and nearly sideswiped a passing van. When the van's angry driver tooted his horn at her, she shouted out the window, "Watch where the hell you're going!" Raine grew frightened of even reaching Laurie's residence safely.

After finally exiting the airport parking lot, and reaching a main highway, Raine was cognizant that the woman was looking at them in the rear view mirror instead of the heavy traffic in front of her. Laurie's aunt asked, "What's the matter, you all too good to ride up front with me?"

Laurie glanced at Raine and arched her right eyebrow as if to say 'Watch this.' "No, auntie" she replied sweetly. "We just didn't want to crowd you in the front seat."

"Aw, screw you", the woman growled. "Is that another crack about my weight?"

When Laurie flipped her aunt off from the safety of the back of the front seat, Raine giggled despite herself. Laurie said "Good, I was beginning to think you weren't human," which caused Raine to giggle again.

"What's going on back there?" the aunt angrily retorted. "Nothing, auntie," Laurie responded in a dulcet tone. Raine giggled again. The ice had been broken.

By the time the car pulled up in front of Laurie's home, they were talking like old friends.

………………..

When Raine followed Laurie into her bedroom, her first reaction was shock. Her friend had never really told her how interested she was with the world of Japan. Laurie's walls lay covered with Final Fantasy and various anime posters. A Gundam Wing here, some Escaflowne there. And even, a huge poster of the Backstreet Boys.

Raine sighed. She couldn't account for taste. It was Laurie's room, not hers. Who was she to judge?

The TV in one corner was hooked up to a beautiful Playstation 2, and as Raine dropped her bag on the floor, she circled the room breathlessly. Settling next to the PS2, her curious hands came across Laurie's copy of _The Bouncer_, which had a photo of an attractive young man on the cover.

"You know, I've always thought he looked like Squall," Raine muttered to herself.

Laurie grinned and nodded. "I know, he does..so does Tidus! They all look like Squall!"

"And you're saying that like it's a bad thing," Raine replied, turning to face her friend, who was now opening the window to let the fresh air blow through

Raine's gaze fell across the bunk beds. She set the game down and threw herself on top of the bottom bunk. "So, where do I get to sleep?" she asked, bouncing lightly on the springy mattress.

"Lucky, you get the floor!" Laurie joked. At that moment, Raine bounced a little higher than anticipated and bashed her head on the top bunk.

"Ow!" she cried, grabbing her skull where the wood had struck her. She winced as Laurie laughed at her. Taking the nearest object she could find, a stuffed bear, she threw it at her friend, bopping her in the face and spoke, "Not funny."

"Yes it is! Bounce, bounce, bounce OUCH! It's classic. Maybe I should be calling YOU the Bouncer!"

The two laughed harmoniously, sharing the joke. Raine was feeling more and more relaxed, at the fact that she finally realized they weren't so out of touch, and because the small talk was getting them by.

Two weeks to go. Would she make it?

Rising from her spot, Raine scooped up Laurie's copy of Final Fantasy VIII and grinned. "It sucked you into the trap, eh? How many times have you beaten Ultimecia?"

Laurie shrugged, a thin smile on her face. "A few, nothing special, the battle does kinda take forever, you know."

Raine grinned. "Yeah…for me three hours!" Another laugh from Laurie.

"So anyway…Raine. It's been awhile since we've had any REAL talks."

"Real talks?" What was that supposed to mean? Raine raised an eyebrow at her friend, who now lay on her stomach, hugging a pillow with a Buru-Buru dog on it.

"Yeah, silly. You know…the wide world of boys…" Laurie replied, flipping a section of silky blonde hair behind her.

"Guys?! You mean…like, outside of Final Fantasy?" Raine asked.

Laurie grinned. "Yep, as in no Seifer, no Zell."

"But Zell's so sexy!"

__

If she only knew, Laurie grinned to herself. "Yes, he is sexy. But, I'm talking about guys. Human guys…boys. Guys."

"You're calling Zell inhuman, aren't you?"

"You're very protective of him, Raine!" Laurie cried tossing her Buru-Buru pillow in her friend's direction.

Raine smiled. "Yeah? So what if I am?"

"Then…uh..well, anyway. Tell me, what are the guys like in Canada?"

"Well, they all wear fur coats, live in igloos, go dogsledding, and train to be lumber jacks in their spare time," Raine joked.

Laurie laughed. "I see…are they cute out there in the cold?"

"Yeah, they've got the whole rosy-cheek thing going!" Raine replied with a laugh, picturing some of her friends. 

Suddenly both young women fell silent for a moment. Raine glanced at her friend with more than a little anxiety noticeable on her pretty face. "What's the matter?" Laurie asked, with a sudden sinking in her heart.

"Uh" Raine started, "I've been kinda wondering since this whole thing began, but I didn't know how to ask you without seeming rude, but what caused you to invite me suddenly out of the blue after all these years?"

__

I knew it, Laurie thought desolately, quickly arising from her position on the bed. When Laurie remained silent, Raine pressed her. "Well, what is it?"

Laurie glanced away from her inquiring friend and toed her carpeted bedroom floor with her right foot. "I'm not sure," she muttered in a low tone. "But if I tell you, you'll think I'm crazy."

"What did you say?" Raine asked, straining to hear her friend's words.

Laurie looked up and exclaimed loudly, "I said you'll think I'm crazy!"

"Crazy?" Raine repeated, "Why would I think that?"

Tears began to form in Laurie's eyes, as she said in a softer tone, "Because I think I'm crazy, but I have an overwhelming feeling, that won't go away, there was some reason we needed to be together right now."

"Feeling?" Raine echoed, thoroughly confused at the direction the conversation was taking.

"Yes, damn it!" Laurie replied passionately, "A feeling that something dreadful was going to happen to somebody somewhere, if we weren't together right at this particular time." And tears began to flow down Laurie's face.

Raine glanced away, completely at sea and didn't know how to respond to her friend's tears. Just to do something, Raine turned and opened Laurie's large walk-in closet and espied something weird on her top shelf. Taking a step closer to obtain a better look, she observed a long brown cattleman's coat and a cowboy hat. _Now why do those look so familiar_? Raine wondered to herself.

Raine was so curious about the strange apparel, that even though she realized it was extremely rude of her, she reached up and pulled the coat and hat down from the top shelf of the closet and turned and asked Laurie, who was busy wiping her tears away, "What is this?" 

Suddenly realizing why the outfit appeared so familiar to her, Raine muttered, "Say, this kind of looks like Irvine's coat from Final Fantasy VIII."

Laurie paled immensely, attempting to hide it from Raine. Raine raised an eyebrow. "What? You act like it is Irvine's!"

Laurie physically flinched and whispered, "It is Irvine's."

"Oh, come on!" Raine retorted, "Now _I_ think _you_ are crazy!" A shrewd look came on Raine's face. "Are you having an affair with an older man?"

"No!" Laurie emphatically stated. "Think about what you're saying." Raine had to admit to herself that her friend was correct. What was she thinking? How could Laurie have an affair with an older man in her bedroom that she shared with her sister in her parent's home? It was clearly impossible.

"It was Irvine, Zell and Selphie and they fell through that wall right over there" responded Laurie, pointing to her wall that held the Backstreet Boys poster. "They arrived here through time compression."

Raine retorted, "I think you're in need of some heavy medication. Those are characters in a video game. They're not real, Laurie and you know it."

"They are real!" Laurie heatedly insisted, "And they came through that wall!"

"This wall over here?" Raine asked, striding up to the wall in question. "This wall?" she asked, while striking it gently with her hand. "Right here on this wall?" she asked again, sarcasm evident in her tone while hitting it a bit harder. As Laurie nodded dumbly, Raine turned and hit the wall extra hard and asked "This solid wall right here?" and screamed as she tumbled completely into the wall and was gone from the view of her completely stunned friend. 

………………..

After tumbling through Laurie's bedroom wall, Raine regained her feet and glanced around her in utter shock and amazement. She was presently gazing at the completely white environment that was located at the apex of absolute time and space. As she looked around her at the totally inexplicable milieu, adrenaline rushed through her body causing her eyes to widen considerably and her hearing to become acute. But there was still nothing to see except for whiteness and no sound to hear.

__

Now what have I gotten myself into? Raine wondered, _And where the heck am I_?

Raine decided, even though she had lost all sense of the direction from whence she had came, to attempt to return to Laurie's bedroom wall, but had hardly taken two steps when she noticed her whole body was vibrating intensely as though there were more than one of her present.

__

This is too weird, Raine thought as she began to become extremely frightened. After a few seconds had passed of Raine just standing there and watching herself vibrate, she spoke aloud. "I've got to keep going." And she forced herself to take step after step, attempting to not look down to where she could not see her own feet in the swirling whiteness.

Shuffling her feet slowly in order to not trip over something she was unable to see or fall into some ungodly hole, Raine trudged toward the direction she had arrived from; or could it be behind her? _There is just no way of knowing for sure_, Raine thought desolately. On and on she went, step after step, attempting to keep her mind clear of the terror she was experiencing, when suddenly she began to fall! Raine continued to fall as she screamed in terror, but no sound reached her ears.

………………..

Something suddenly changed in the atmosphere as Raine felt herself slowing in her fall into something resembling more of a float. She ceased her screaming and attempted to hold her arms and legs straight out in order to slow herself even further.

As Raine's downward descent continued to decrease, exhausted was the only word to describe how she felt. But she knew she must stay awake. She didn't know what kind of things to expect. However, she sensed a new feeling.

Time must be shifting back into place. _Hopefully_, she thought to herself. _I'm getting tired of this floating through space crap_.

It was then that she noticed that the world she was falling into was no different from the one she'd come from. Underneath her lay islands, grass, a city, an ocean…much like the city she'd come from. If she was still on Earth, that is.

The light around her was blinding, and she shut her eyes, shielding herself with her arms as she felt herself being propelled forward. Seconds later, she felt a thud, and came to the realization that she was on ground now.

Glancing up, she was horrified to what she was seeing. Her back pressed against a wall, she realized she was in a room, with a young man, possibly the age of seventeen or so. And he was in his boxers!

"Ahhhh!!!!" She screamed, startling him.

He whirled around, his eyes wild with fright. "Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!" he screamed in return, jumping up on his bed.

"Who are you?! How did you get in here?!" he cried. Raine frowned as she allowed herself to look at him.

He wasn't bad looking, with blonde hair that spiked at the front, crystal blue eyes, and a black tattoo on the left side of his face.

She giggled at his boxers, which were white with red hearts on them. "Nice boxers" she snickered.

He frowned. "You have some nerve. You come into my room unannounced, and you remark about my boxers." Her comment sunk in and he blushed. "Oh…uh…"

It was then that Raine realized who she must've been looking at. "Are you really…who I think you are?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"This is creepy, because I've never seen you before. How can you know me and I not know you?" he cried, falling to his knees on the bed he was standing on.

Raine couldn't help but notice how muscular he was. _Nice bod_, she thought to herself, gathering herself and rising from where she'd been kneeling in a heap on the floor.

Taking the time to look around the room, she studied it. A punching bag, a bigger punching bag, some sort of mammoth electric skateboard, a picture of an elderly man above three high powered rifles resting on a rack, and a bed.

Two gloves sat on the dresser she stood beside. Two, familiar looking gloves. "Ehrgeiz," she muttered, picking one up.

The blonde man frowned. "What? Yes, those are my Ehrgeiz. I bought them myself! Now at least tell me who you are before you go around touching my stuff!"

Raine shook her head. It wasn't possible. "Are you Zell?" she asked, turning to face him.

He paled. "How do you know me?" he asked.

"So you're Zell then," she confirmed.

He nodded lightly, "Yes…you still haven't told me who YOU are yet…is ANY of this sinking in?" he asked, pulling a red t-shirt and some blue shorts on over his boxers.

"Umm…my name is Raine. And…well, I fell through your wall. That's how I think I got here, anyway," she replied, lifting a hand to tuck a section of chestnut brown hair behind her ear.

"Well…it's nice to meet you, I think…" Zell said, wiping his hand on his shorts and extending his hand to shake hers.

Raine's expression went blank for a moment. "You ARE Zell!" she cried, a huge smile aligning her pretty face.

Zell was taken aback and he stepped backwards. "Uh…"

"I don't mean to scare you but…this may sound weird…I think I come from another world."

"Dude…another one?" Zell asked, frowning. He took a seat on his bed, biting his lip in concentration.

"In my world…it was the year 2001. What year is it here?" Raine asked. Zell's eyes widened and he jumped up.

"HOLY SHIVA!! You can't be serious! 2001?!! That's…ancient! Wow…it's all backwards and stuff now…" he said, bringing up his thumb to his lips to chew on a fingernail in wonder.

"Backwards?" Raine asked, his comment sparking her interest.

"Yeah, a while back…my friends and I fell into your world and met some girl named Laurie."

"You met Laurie?!" Raine cried, perking up at the mentioning of her friend's name.

"Yeah…we fell through her wall."

"How did you get back?!" Raine persisted, stomping her foot lightly.

Zell frowned. "We walked right back through the wall."

Raine raised an eyebrow. "If you say so." With that, she turned to go through the wall. Hitting it, she went nowhere. She hit the wall. The solid wall.

The time warp wasn't there anymore!

………………..

After Raine disappeared through her wall, Laurie stood completely stunned for a split second and then screaming her friend's name, she raced to where she had last seen Raine standing. Tentatively reaching out with her right hand to touch the wall, her hand disappeared into it! Laurie quickly pulled it back. What was she going to do? "What am I going to tell her mother?" Laurie spoke aloud. "That her daughter disappeared into my wall?"

Laurie felt instantly guilty as she realized her best friend of all time had probably just disappeared into time compression and all she could think of was how it was going to affect herself.

"I've got to go find her," Laurie spoke aloud again. Looking around the room for something she could take to protect herself in time compression, her glance fell upon Irvine's hat and coat still laying on her floor. Inexplicitly deciding the hat and coat might provide some protection, Laurie slipped them on, purposely not glancing at herself in her bedroom mirror because she realized she must look ludicrous with Irvine's large hat and coat draped on her five foot, three inch frame.

With her heart pounding rapidly and adrenaline racing through her body, Laurie very carefully stepped into the wall. And tumbled into a completely alien environment! 

Quickly glancing around, Laurie observed a gray appearing sky completely covered with swirling clouds and a land of brown clay lined with huge cracks as far as her eyes could see. Reaching down with her right hand to touch the texture of the ground that lay beneath her, she quickly pulled her hand back as she felt the burn from the frigid temperature. "Ow!" she exclaimed.

Not having any other options at this point, Laurie began to walk straight forward, being careful not to trip on Irvine's long coat and keeping her attention focused looking everywhere around her, searching for her lost friend. On and on she walked, step after step. Laurie walked and walked and walked until her ankles and knees ached constantly from the intense gravity of the environment and her legs were screaming in pain. And on she walked searching for her friend. She had absolutely no comprehension of how far she had traveled or how long it had been, since everything still looked exactly the same. 

When suddenly she reached the end of land! Laurie groaned slightly, as she carefully bent over to peer downwards. She couldn't see anything except for swirling fog. What was she to do now?

__

I guess Rinoa isn't going to show up, Laurie thought rather whimsically, considering her precarious situation. _Then I'm going to have to jump_," Laurie decided and stepped off into the void. _Oh, crap_!" she thought, as she began to plummet!

………………..

Laurie's shriek of terror was suddenly cut short as she landed roughly and then tumbled forward into a completely unknown dark space. Groping around with her hands, Laurie was surprised to touch some sort of fabric. Instantly recognizing she was in a clothes closet, Laurie felt around in the darkness until she discovered the closet clasp.

Stepping out of the closet into the bright light, Laurie was momentarily blinded. When her eyes refocused, she was greatly surprised to discover herself in a narrow, nondescript bedroom. _Where in the world am I_? Laurie wondered.

Laurie took the opportunity to remove Irvine's hat and heavy coat and lay them across the bed, as perspiration was beginning to form on her body in the presently warm environment. She had just grasped a slight understanding of where she might be when she observed a huge firearm of some sort propped in the corner of the bedroom between the wall and the bed, when Irvine walked in, apparently wet from a shower, wearing a knotted towel around his waist.

Laurie couldn't believe her own eyes, as Irvine, taken slightly aback, exclaimed, "Whoa, little darling. Where did you come from?"

As Irvine moved his arms in his usual overstated fashion to emphasize his point, the exaggerated movement caused the slight knot in his towel to give way and the towel fluttered harmlessly to the floor. Blushing crimson, Laurie quickly averted her eyes to the floor.

A few seconds later, Laurie sensed, rather than heard, Irvine's extremely light tread across the bedroom floor and realized he was presently standing in front of her.

Irvine laughed and said, "You can look now, I'm decent."

Raising her head, Laurie quickly comprehended that Irvine was dressed _only_ in a smile. "You JERK!" she shrieked and quickly brought her right knee up in an explosive manner causing Irvine to drop immediately to his knees, moaning in pain.

"Why did you do that?" he gasped.

"Hey! I'm from New Jersey!" Laurie exclaimed, "You think we don't have jerks like you to deal with?"

Suddenly the door burst wide open, and Selphie bounded into the room, apparently drawn by the shouting. Sizing up the entire scenario in a split second, as Selphie was used to discovering Irvine in similar situations wherever they went, she shouted, "Irvine Kinneas!" and sprang forward and began to pummel him with her "Strange Vision" across his bare back and shoulders.

Curling himself into a small ball in an effort to escape further punishment, Irvine pleaded, "Sefie, please stop!" Observing the first red welts present on his back, Selphie took pity on the constantly philandering Irvine and ceased her attack. Spotting his hat and coat laying across his bed, she threw him the coat and demanded, "Here! Put this on."

As Irvine scrambled to cover himself, Selphie thought, _That's strange_. _I thought he left his hat and coat somewhere_." Selphie finally received the opportunity to take a longer look at Laurie and was momentarily perplexed when she realized the teenager was not from the Garden, but looked very familiar.

"Hi, Selphie! Remember me?" Laurie said in a cheerful manner raising her right hand and offering a slight wave.

Suddenly the momentary look of puzzlement fled from Selphie's beautiful face and was replaced by a bright smile. "Why, sure I do. You're Laurie, that girl from the past, whose room we fell into, right? But whatever are you doing here?"

Before Laurie could adequately begin to frame a response that would explain the catastrophe that she and Raine had fallen into in a short concise fashion, Selphie stepped forward and grasped Laurie by the right hand saying, "Girl, you need to come out of here right now! Take it from me, you don't want to give Irvine a chance to catch his second wind." And with that, Selphie led Laurie quietly from the room and into the corridor. 


	2. One Can Hope - Chapter two

One Can Hope

By Raine Ishida and RobertDogwood@aol.com

Chapter Two

"Okay...explain to me **ONE** more time how she got here?" Mina's voice was strained as she rubbed her forehead.

Zell had brought Raine to Balamb Garden, where he'd wasted no time in taking her to register as a guest, and took her to the library to speak with Mina.

"Like I said, she fell through my bedroom wall. She's from the past, Mimi," Zell explained, using extra emphasis on the special nickname he had for his girlfriend.

"Don't pull the Mimi business on me, Dincht. How can you prove she's from the past?" Mina asked, gesturing largely with her arms.

Raine sighed, feeling neglected. She hated when people spoke of her when it was obvious she was standing right before them.

"I can't prove it, but it's obvious! Look what she's wearing!" Zell replied, pointing in Raine's direction. She frowned, glancing down at her outfit, the black, low necked shirt, her favorite red and black skirt and knee length boots. "What's wrong with my outfit?" she cried in her outfit's defense.

"When are you from, Raine?" Mina asked, taking on a gentler tone.

"The year 2001. Of course, I was born in 1986, but the current time I'm from is 2001. What year is it here?"

"A hell of a lot further in the future than where you come from," Zell replied, banging his fist on the reception desk.

Mina frowned. "Zell, quiet, you're catching attention. Uh...well, Raine, I suggest you work something out with either Xu or Cid, because they won't let you stay here unless you have a visitor's pass."

Raine sighed. "Alright..."

Mina took sympathy on the poor girl and smiled. Taking her arm lightly, she nodded at Zell. "Come on, I'll give you a tour around the Garden."

* * *

Once Selphie and Laurie were safely out in the corridor and away from the continually sex-obsessed Irvine, Selphie suggested that they retreat from the men's dorm as quickly as possible as there was male SeeDs and upper-classmen everywhere in the hallway and clearly visible in their rooms through their opened doorways. As most of them were in various stages of undress, Laurie quickly averted her eyes and stared at the floor as she and Selphie scurried along, amid the hoots and wolf whistles that were being offered.

It seemed to Laurie to take forever for them to reach the end of the corridor and enter the door that led to the women's dorm. Once they had entered the relative safety of the female dorm, Selphie turned to Laurie saying, "Wow, you sure were popular back there!"

"What do you mean?" Laurie asked, still blushing from some of the sights that had been offered her.

"I mean...all those whistles," Selphie answered.

"How do you know it was meant for me, instead of you?" Laurie asked.

"Oh, no," the spunky SeeD answered. "They know I would have thrashed them in a second, if they did that to me," Selphie laughed. "Come on, let's go to my room. We can talk there."

Once safely ensconced inside Selphie's dormitory room, Laurie was invited to sit in the one chair present in the room and Selphie chose to sit on her bed. Laurie quickly recounted the entire scenario to Selphie. After she had finished, Selphie asked, "So you have no idea what happened to your friend?" After Laurie sadly shook her head, Selphie responded, "Well, you entered our time here in the Garden, so maybe your friend will too." As Laurie continued to stare forlornly at Selphie, she quickly suggested, "Why don't we go talk to Rinoa? She's a sorceress, maybe she knows something that will help."

"R - Rinoa?" Laurie stammered.

"Yeah, you know who Rinoa is, don't you?" the young SeeD impatiently questioned.

When Laurie nodded, Selphie declared, "Of course you do - that game you said we're in. I remember seeing Rinoa on the cover. That figures," Selphie responded tartly.

Laurie looked questioningly at Selphie, who said, "She's probably in the library. That's where she hangs out when she isn't with Squall. Of course, she's supposed to be my roommate, but I don't see much of her," the young brunette woman went on mysteriously. "She doesn't even come in here often enough to feed and give Angelo fresh water. I have to do it!"

Glancing around the room, Laurie suddenly discovered Angelo lying in the corner of the bedroom by his food and water bowls.

"Angelo!" Laurie squealed.

Angelo blearily lifted his head slightly from his sleep and gave Laurie an owlish look before laying his head immediately back down in slumber.

Opening the door, Selphie grasped Laurie by her hand and pulled her up so quickly, the chair nearly toppled. "Come on! You don't have time to mess with _ that _ dog, if you want to save your friend!"

Laurie immediately acquiesced and allowed herself to be led into the hallway and down the corridor leading to the main part of the Garden.

* * *

Walking quickly to keep up with the fast pace Selphie was setting, Laurie looked around her in wonderment. Selphie was right to be upset that Laurie would think the actual reality could be contained in a game. No game could capture the awesome size of the Garden, the wide open spaces and the bright vivid colors. As they strode along the inner pool of crystal blue water, Laurie thought she recognized several of the minor characters from the game. _ Amazing, _ she thought to herself.

Striding into the library behind the fast walking female SeeD, Laurie noted that Rinoa was not at the usual bookshelves that held her interest in the game, but was standing by some shelves toward the back of the library and reading from a book.

_ She's so beautiful! _ Laurie thought. _ The game doesn't do her justice. _

"Hi, Rinoa, you got a minute?" Selphie inquired.

Rinoa must have been deeply engrossed in her reading, as she appeared startled when she glanced up at the sound of her name. Rinoa closed the book but kept her finger in it marking her spot.

Laurie became inordinately curious as to what could hold Rinoa's concentration in such a manner and, as she was standing directly behind Selphie, Laurie attempted to look around her to no avail. She finally began trying to step up on her tiptoes in an attempt to see over Selphie as they were approximately the same height.

Glancing at her watch, Rinoa answered, "Actually I don't. I'm supposed to be meeting Squall for lunch as we speak, and you know as well as I do - he can become very surly, if he has to wait for somebody."

Suddenly the ebony-haired woman became cognizant of Laurie rising above Selphie's left shoulder for a few seconds at a time before returning to the floor and she asked sarcastically, "Who's the jumping jack behind you?"

As Selphie turned to see Laurie rising up on her toes once again, she hissed, "Knock it off."

When Selphie returned her attention to Rinoa, she was startled to see her striding from the library.

"Hey Rinoa!" she called out.

Rinoa answered, "Look for me after lunch, I have to go." And she hurried from the scene.

Selphie turned angrily to Laurie and demanded, "Just what were you doing? You have to act just right around Rinoa or she's not gonna talk to you because she doesn't know you."

Laurie explained, "I was trying to see what book Rinoa was reading."

Selphie exploded, "Oh, for Hyne's sake! Like that's important! Well, you wait outside the library on one of those benches. I have to meet Irvine for lunch and I can't stand him up or he'll be in there hitting on every one of the girls in the cafeteria."

Laurie replied, "I want to go too."

Selphhie answered, "You can't, you don't have a pass to be here yet and they won't feed you. I'll try to get you fed tonight."

"But I'm hungry," Laurie whined.

"I'll try to bring you something back," Selphie promised as she was leaving the library. "Remember, wait at one of those benches out front."

As Laurie complied as directed and sat uncomfortably on the stone bench, she couldn't help but notice that every SeeD and upper-classman who hurried by looked at her strangely. Laurie assumed they were either very unfriendly or had never seen a girl wear black leather jeans before. She felt doubly frustrated as she was very hungry and she hadn't been able to make out what book Rinoa was reading. The cute teenager had only been able to see that the author's first name began with R and her last name started with I.

* * *

After about an hour, Selphie returned holding a paper sack that contained two very cold hot dogs wrapped in buns. Choking them down without something to drink was quite a task, but Laurie was so hungry she accomplished it with alacrity.

"Did Rinoa come by here to the library?" the green-eyed young woman questioned.

Laurie shook her head. "Nope, haven't seen her."

"Well, damn," cursed Selphie. "She left the cafeteria with Squall a while ago and I thought she would come back to the library."

_ Well, why didn't you follow her? _ Laurie thought, but didn't allow herself to articulate, because she didn't want to face the wrath of the rather feisty young woman any more than was necessary.

"Come on," Selphie directed. "Maybe she went back to the room."

Laurie tagged along behind Selphie growing more tired with each step. _ Man! _ she thought, _ I've never done so much walking in my life. _ But then she recalled how much walking and running they did in the game and wondered if their real lives actually mirrored this.

Reaching Rinoa and Selphie's dorm room, the ebony-haired woman was nowhere to be found and, upon Selphie questioning some hallmates, she discovered that Rinoa had gone to the swimming pool.

"Swimming pool? What swimming pool?" questioned Laurie.

"We have a swimming pool in the basement," Selphie replied, rather impatiently. "Don't you have one in that precious game of yours?"

When Laurie silently shook her head, choosing to remain silent because she didn't find Selphie's tone to be to her liking, Selphie responded tartly, "I'm sure there are a lot more things here that you don't know about. The Garden is a lot bigger than you can fit in any game!"

* * *

After riding down on the elevator, Selphie and Laurie entered a locker room that Laurie had never seen. There was a young, blonde woman, presumably a SeeD from her age, toweling off in front of a locker. Laurie thought she might have been the young blonde SeeD, who was in charge of the children on the second floor during the fight with Galbadian Garden; but was too embarrassed to ask.

Selphie questioned, "Is Rinoa here, Ai?"

The young woman answered, "Rinoa was here, but she left saying she was going to take a Yellow Cab to Balamb City to do some shopping."

"Yellow Cab?!" exclaimed Laurie. _ How ironic, _ she thought. _ The only thing that survived our culture is a Yellow Cab! _

Noticing that Selphie and the young woman were looking at her strangely, Laurie muttered, "Never mind, it's not important."

Selphie instructed, "Come on, we'll wait for her to come back by the front gate."

Finally reaching the front gate, Laurie sank gratefully on to a stone bench and off her tired legs. The front gates were standing open and Laurie could see it appeared to be a beautiful spring day.

After a few minutes, a Yellow Cab did come wheeling up and screeched to a stop. Rinoa stepped out of the back seat, holding a number of bags and bundles and leaned into the front window to pay the driver.

As the driver squealed off angrily, the hazel-eyed woman turned and smiled. "He didn't like the size of his tip," she explained.

"So who's our jumping jack?" Rinoa asked. "I don't remember seeing her around before."

Before Selphie could introduce her to Rinoa, Laurie spoke heatedly, "I am not a jumping jack!"

"Oh, you're not! I apologize, but you were certainly behaving as one," laughed Rinoa.

"Don't let her get to you," Selphie warned in a low tone only Laurie could hear.

Stepping over to the ebony-haired woman, Selphie explained, "Rinoa, this is Laurie. We need to talk to you about something very important."

"So who's stopping you?" Rinoa answered. "If you want to talk to me, have her come over here." Rinoa smiled maliciously at Laurie.

Selphie demanded, "Laurie, come over here right now and quit playing around."

Laurie bit her tongue, but thought to herself, _ Yeah, like I'm having fun here! _

* * *

Several hours later, after a wonderful dinner, Laurie lay under a sheet in Rinoa's bed in the semi-darkened room. Her clothes were neatly hanging in Selphie's closet and Angelo was draped over her lower body sound asleep. As she idly petted the slumbering Angelo, Laurie mused that, after all the fuss, Rinoa had been absolutely no help to them at all. But as Laurie drifted off to sleep, one thing seemed to strangely echo in her mind. Rinoa had reported she didn't pick up any vibration from Laurie concerning anything. In fact, Rinoa had said, she hadn't felt an inkling of her own sorceress power since returning from time compression!

* * *

Raine lay in Mina's room in the early evening in a bed that Mina had purloined from somewhere...Mina wouldn't say where. She had decided to go to bed early because she had experienced such an exhausting day...both mentally and physically and also she had no company, because Mina had gone out with Zell.

Raine actually welcomed the aloneness, because she thought she needed some time to attempt to sort out her emotions about the past chaotic hours that felt to her as though they had been days. She never would have guessed that it'd be so easy for her to be accepted by the Garden as a visitor. Raine had assumed that her story would never be believed and either she would be thrown out on her ear or placed in the disciplinary room as a dangerous alien. _ But that's the trouble with assuming, _ she thought and then giggled, remembering the rest of the old axiom.

In fact, it had all gone quite smoothly. Mina had taken Raine up to the third floor to meet Xu and Cid. She never did meet Cid as he seemed extremely preoccupied with a huge stack of papers on his desk. As she was introduced to Xu by Mina, who then explained Raine's story, Raine expected the best case scenario to be Xu just considering her completely insane and requiring medical assistance from the doctor.

Instead, it turned out that Selphie had, upon returning from time compression, presented Xu with a detailed report of their experiences in the year 2001 on the way back to their own time. Xu had been expecting something of the sort that occurred to Raine and Laurie to happen anytime. Happily that's all there was to it.

Mina had taken Raine directly to the cafeteria for dinner and filled her with wonderfully strange exotic food. She realized if she ate like that every day, she would put on ten pounds in a week, so she made a mental note to eat lightly on the following day.

As Raine began to slip into a comfortable sleep, she prayed that she might be reunited with her best friend on the morrow, God willing.

* * *

Mina frowned for a few minutes, appearing to Zell as if she was deep in thought. He didn't want to disturb her train of thought, but he was dreadfully curious at what was running through her head.

"Hey Mimi, what'cha thinkin?" he asked, placing his face on his folded hands in front of her. She raised an eyebrow.

"Doesn't it seem...oh, nevermind," she trailed off, waving her hand as a movement of giving up.

Zell shook his head. "No, tell me!" he persisted, unclasping his hands to fiddle with a paper napkin that lay, unused, on the table.

Mina sighed heavily. "But Zell...I told you it doesn't matter. It's just...it's a coincidence. It's nothing special. It's silly," she finished, setting her tone deeper at the end of of her statement to let her boyfriend know it was then he should stop asking questions or he'd be in trouble.

Zell shrugged. "Tch, fine..."

Mina sighed loudly and took his hands. "Listen, Zell, if you absolutely ** MUST ** know, I was only thinking about Raine."

"What about her?" Zell questioned, cocking his head slightly.

Mina shrugged. "Don't you think it's a little odd.....that her name is Raine, and she happens to end up in Balamb, the place where Squall, the son of Raine Loire, happens to be a SeeD of? Does that not strike you odd in the slightest?" she asked, emphasizing on her final word.

Zell shrugged. "Sure, it does seem kinda...well, I guess weird. I don't know," he said, shrugging once more. "Coincidences do happen. I'm sure there are more than two Raines in the world, you know?"

Mina nodded. "Am I digging too deep into this?"

"The new Raine is not Squall's mother, she's from too far back in the past. It's all just a bunch of crazy messed up junk anyway. I mean, girl falls through friend's wall, girl from a parallel universe ends up in some guy's closet."

Mina laughed, reaching for Zell's drink. "Good point. It's...well, the whole situation is questionable!"

"What was your first clue?" Zell asked, raising a blond eyebrow. Reaching for his drink, he swiped it from his girlfriend's greedy fingers.

"You're not very nice sometimes," Mina mumbled with a sigh. For now, their conversation was over. At least until...Zell's attention was caught by something else.

Mina sighed, her cheek resting on the palm of her hand as she sat, slumped in her chair. Zell sat across from her at the tiny cafeteria table, eating a hotdog, and taking swigs of his carbonated drink. Every so often, he'd sneak glances at her.

"Mimi..." he started, breaking the silence. She looked up, without moving from her tired position.

"Hmmm?"

"I've been thinking..." he said, raising a smirk from her. "This ought to be good," she muttered. He flushed, obviously hurt.

She sighed and reached across the table to take his hand. "Listen, I'm just tired, alright? It's been a long day."

"Yeah...girls falling through walls and such can really take a chunk out of your week."

Mina shook her head, sitting up in a proper position.

The two sat in silence for a little while, when Zell got an idea. His face lit up and he grinned. "Mimi, you know what we haven't done in awhile?" he asked.

She raised an eyebrow. "Dare I ask?"

He stuck his tongue out at her. "Haha, funny. No, Mimi. I haven't seen you dance forever."

Mina shook her head. "Forever is a long time. It hasn't been that long."

Zell blushed. "Yeah...well...come on. Please? It'll be fun. A good way to relax after a long day."

"By exerting more energy?"

"Hyne, you're sarcastic tonight," he shot back, finishing off his drink and tossing it into the recycle bin nearby.

"Sorry. I'm just trying to cheer myself up. Where do you plan on taking me in order for me to dance?" she asked.

He shrugged. "The Quad is the only open place now. How about there?"

"Stage is too cluttered," Mina recalled, the stage was covered with wires and instruments. Like usual.

"Well...the club is closed..."

"Damn, it must be late. You know it's late when the club is closed," Mina replied quietly.

Zell sighed. "Mimi, I'm trying here, okay?"

He got an idea.

"Wait here," he told her, kissing her forehead and rushing off to the cafeteria's main kitchen.

"What in Hyne's name is he doing...?" Mina whispered. As she sat momentarily in silence, she was interrupted by the cracking of the overhead speaker.

"A song dedicated to my favorite girl..." Zell's voice was coming through the speaker!

Mina's face displayed shock and confusion, as Zell reappeared next to her.

"What is going on?" she asked, as he took her hand in his. He just smiled.

"Well, there's no where else to dance, why not here?" he asked, moving a few chairs out of the way as he led her to an open space in the dining area.

"Zell...what the?" Mina asked, at a loss for words.

"Shh," he whispered, drawing her closer as the music played overhead. _ Eyes on Me _ by Faye Wong. Or Julia Heartilly, however, it'd never been proven who the real singer of the enchanting song was.

"Zell..." she protested. He shook his head. "Quiet. Don't ruin the moment, Mimi. Just dance."

Taking her in his arms, he proceeded to dance with her, impressing her with his knowledge of the right steps.

"You've been taking lessons?" she asked.

He grinned. "SeeD requirement. All of us have to know how. Remember Squall at the ball with Rinoa?" he asked.

She nodded, remembering vaguely. "Yeah...he was so awkward at first."

"All it took was Rin to work her magic on him. And he knew how, just like you did to me. It's all magic. It's all a spell, I swear it," Zell stated, twirling her.

"I shouldn't need to cast a spell on you, you're so easy to charm, it's cute!" Mina exclaimed.

He raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean??"

"Nothing, it just means that you're not so stuck up as Squall is."

"Don't tell him that, you'll be demoted for sure," Zell replied with a slight smile.

She shook her head, and relished in the moment, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Why are you being so normal?" Mina asked, out of the blue. The question caught him off guard.

"Am I not normal?" he asked, rather insulted.

She smiled and lifted her head to look at him. "No, normal...like...hmm. You're not an eccentric. You're...well, you're being romantic, for one thing," she informed him. He nodded.

"Yeah, I figured I better start somewhere if I wanted to get anywhere," he said. That earned him a smack on the arm from his girlfriend as she giggled.

"Watch what you say or you might be stuck in this spot forever."

"Have I complained yet?" he asked. Now it was her turn to blush. "I thought so," he replied with a grin.

"Shut up and relish in the moment, Dincht," she ordered, returning her head to his shoulder. He grinned. She only called him by his last name when she was serious.

"It's all about the moment, isn't it..." he muttered.

* * *

Laurie awoke suddenly, her eyes completely open, as she realized she had been having a nightmare that was no longer a part of her memory. Glancing around the bedroom she experienced a second of total panic connected with complete disorientation, before she remembered where she was and why she wasn't viewing her bedroom from the top of her bunkbed back in New Jersey.

Angelo had remained lying across her, and Laurie shifted uncomfortably, her entire body feeling stiff despite the relative comfort of Rinoa's bed because of her inability to change her sleeping position during the night.

And thinking of Rinoa, Laurie idly wondered where she had spent the night, since there was no evidence that she had been in the room for the past twelve hours. Slowly sliding her body from underneath Angelo figuring to let sleeping dogs lie, Laurie stood up. She was wearing an old orange blouse, Selphie had lent her to sleep in, so her clothes wouldn't be wrinkled and she could keep her _ unmentionables _ fresher.

Hurrying to the closet and donning her apparel quickly, because she certainly didn't relish anybody walking in on her, not even Selphie or Rinoa...particularly not Rinoa. It had been obvious to Laurie that Rinoa had taken an instant disliking to her and she didn't understand why.

_ I'm a nice person, _ she thought to herself. Why didn't Rinoa see that? Selphie had insisted it was because Laurie had been with her and Rinoa was jealous of anybody who Selphie knew and she didn't. But that didn't make any sense, did it? Laurie questioned.

"Oh, well," Laurie sighed. There was no reason to stay cooped up in here.

Exiting the bedroom and walking down the corridor away from the women's dorm, Laurie was careful to not accidentally go the wrong way. There was no way she was going in the men's dorm again and risk running into Irvine! She flushed suddenly as she remembered him standing there wearing nothing.

Opening the door that led to the corridor that was connected to the main part of the Garden, Laurie, once again, was struck by amazement to actually be present in a place she had only thought existed in a video game. Walking down the corridor, she kept a close eye out for anybody she might recognize...hoping against hope that she might once again see her best friend Raine standing there with her ironical slight smile, waiting for Laurie to respond to some sarcastic comment she had just made.

Upon reaching the main part of the Garden, Laurie was at a complete loss as to where to proceed next. She had no idea where Selphie was and, besides she wasn't sure she could handle Selphie's impatience with her so early in the morning. Eschewing the idea of possibly having breakfast at the cafeteria, because she was certain they wouldn't feed her without Selphie's say so, she decided to go to the library even though she might have the misfortune to run into Rinoa. The library was the one location she was certain about.

Stepping into the library, Laurie couldn't believe her own good luck as Zell was standing there with his back turned to her!

"Zell!" she cried out in her excitement.

Zell whirled around with his usual excellent reflexes, poised for fight or flight on the balls on his feet.

"Zell! It's me," Laurie shouted.

"Shhh," the girl with the pony tail cautioned from behind the check-out desk.

Appearing completely puzzled, Zell replied, "How do you know me? You're not from the Garden."

Moving quickly towards him, Laurie explained happily, "I'm Laurie. Don't tell me you crash through so many girls' bedroom walls that you've already forgotten me?"

Suddenly complete comprehension crossed Zell's face as he replied, "Laurie! Of course I remember you. And have I got a surprise for you. Your friend's here - Raine."

Laurie suddenly felt lightheaded and she began to wobble on her feet. Zell noticing that Laurie's complexion had turned ash white in the sudden shock, reached out and clutched her.

"Are you alright?" Zell asked solicitously. "It was bad of me to spring it on you that way."

Regaining her equilibrium, Laurie offered a small smile and responded, "Yes, I'm fine now, thank you."

With Zell remaining so close and literally holding her in his arms, Laurie flushed at the sudden impulses that were flooding her libido. _ He really is an incredibly sexy man, _ Laurie thought.

Realizing what was occurring, Zell quickly stepped back and suggested, "I'm not positive where Raine is. She's probably with Mina, so you wait here and I'll go locate her and bring her back."

"Okay," Laurie agreed happily.

Zell turned and sprinted through the library almost knocking the _ conceited _ SeeD down as he passed him.

_ Mina, who's Mina? _ Laurie wondered. _ I don't remember any characters in the game having that name. _

After a few minutes had dragged by seeming like hours to the excited Laurie, she decided to disobey Zell's orders as far as walking down the corridor to the main part of the Garden. Upon reaching her destination and standing there for a few minutes, she assumed Zell was having a difficult time locating her friend.

_ Well, this is a huge place, _ Laurie thought. _ I'll just walk down near the front gate. I'll be able to see them from there if they head for the library. _

Standing near the front gate, Laurie was intrigued to notice that some male SeeDs were pushing huge containers on wheels of garbage and trash by her on their way through the front gates that were wide open for them. She had never really considered the waste problem this many people would generate, Laurie realized. _ I wonder who you have to piss off to get stuck with that duty? _ she thought, with a giggle.

Adrenaline began to flow through Laurie as soon as she caught a glimpse of Zell and Raine walking near the corridor to the library.

Laurie shouted, "Zell! Raine! I'm over here!"

She saw Zell and her friend turn in her direction and Raine began to wave, when suddenly the group of male SeeDs, who were involved in the garbage detail converged on her.

Screaming at the top of her lungs, Laurie felt herself easily picked up and placed in one of the huge garbage barges. _ Oh, gross, _ she thought. _ I'm gonna spew. _

Laurie began spitting pieces of garbage out of her mouth, when she suddenly realized the container she was in was moving at a great rate of speed. She began to pull herself up the side of it, when a large right fist clipped her very efficiently just beneath the side of her chin successfully sending her reeling into unconsciousness.

* * *

Raine was silent for a moment, unsure of what she'd just witnessed. Zell was the first to speak.

"Uh...did you just see that?" he asked.

Raine shook her head, then nodded. Still unsure. What was she going to do? Was her best friend of all time just kidnapped right before her very eyes?

"By garbage men, too..." she muttered. She staggered back a few steps, not knowing how to react. "Laurie?" she called out, as if her friend would reappear, calling it all a joke, laughing.

"Raine, we have to find her, we have to follow those men!" Zell announced.

So saying, Zell took off on a gallop dragging Raine behind him by her hand. Quickly reaching the outside gate, they were both totally perplexed to see no evidence of anything out of the ordinary - no male SeeDs, no large garbage bins and most importantly, no Laurie!

Raine glanced at him, her eyes clouded over with sadness. "I don't know what to do..."

"Listen." Zell took her by the shoulders. "We'll go find someone who'll know what to do. Like Squall. Alright? We can talk to Squall."

He shook her a little, clearing her head. "You still have to meet Squall!"

"I know who he is..." Raine muttered.

Zell grinned. "Yeah, but it'd be kind of weird if you spoke to him, because he doesn't know you. We've got to find Mina, then we'll go talk to Squall. Alright?"

Raine nodded slowly, but surely. "Yeah. Okay," she replied. He squeezed her shoulders, giving her a short hug.

"We'll find her."

* * *

Mina shook her head. "No...you can't be serious, Laurie?!" Her voice was laced with panic as she searched the eyes of both Zell and Raine.

"Yes, we saw her. She was standing right across the way, near the dump-" Zell started to say.

"What was she doing there?" Mina interrupted. Zell's expression displayed his displeasure in being interrupted.

"I don't know, she was just there, okay?!" he cried, folding his arms. Mina couldn't help but smile. "Zell, relax," she assured him.

He frowned some more, and allowed his gaze to roam elsewhere in the room.

Mina turned to Raine. "Did you see which way they went?"

Raine shook her head. "Probably, but I was too shaken up, startled..honestly, I couldn't remember if I tried."

"We have to report this to Squall," Mina announced. Zell stomped his foot on the ground, uncrossing his arms.

"That's what I've been saying the whole damn time! Why won't anyone listen to me?!" he cried. Mina smiled warmly, leaning over and kissing him lightly on the cheek, making him blush.

Raine grinned. _ What a sweetheart, _ she thought.

"Let's go find Squall," Mina instructed them, and the trio left the library.

* * *

Later in the afternoon, Raine was still feeling vaguely disappointed that she hadn't been able to meet Squall because of his being in an emergency staff meeting discussing the very fact of Laurie being kidnapped. Mina had assured her that he had left the Garden almost immediately in his quest to search for her. As she was still feeling hightly upset over witnessing Laurie's abduction and not being able to do anything to thwart it and being very worried over her friend's whereabouts and physical condition, Raine wandered into the library searching for Mina.

Not only being Raine's main contact here in the Garden, she also felt an instant affinity with the extremely bright, well coordinated young woman and was badly wanting her company. Glancing around the library, she gathered she was out of luck as she didn't see Mina in any of her usual places.

Standing by herself rather forlornly as busy SeeDs and upper-classmen hustled by her on their way to some personally known assignment or assignation, Raine attempted to recall what explanation Zell had offered for his not being able to spend time with her in the afternoon.

_ Oh, yeah, I remember, _ Raine mused to herself. _ He said something about having to do some adjunct work in a hand-to-hand combat class. _

Suddenly a voice asked, "And you are?"

Raine turned and was astounded to observe Rinoa standing before her, holding a book in her right hand!

Raine flushed and attempted to speak, when Rinoa suddenly said, "You're one of the girls from the past...Raine, isn't it?"

As Raine silently nodded, Rinoa spoke again. "You look awfully familiar to me...I wonder why?"

"Oh Great Hyne!" Rinoa cried out, startling Raine. "What's your last name?" the Deling City beauty demanded.

"Ishida" Raine managed to say.

"You're Raine Ishida?!" Rinoa excitedly asked.

As Raine again nodded her head, Rinoa queried, "You're Raine Ishida...the famous author?!"

Perplexed, Raine responded, "Famous author?...No, but I have hopes of being a published writer someday."

"Come with me!" Rinoa commanded, while grasping Raine by her right hand and leading her to a row of shelves near the back of the library. "Look!" the ebony-haired woman directed, pointing at one of the middle shelves.

Raine complied and gasped audibly when she saw an entire row of books with the name of Raine Ishida carefully stenciled on their sides. Moving as if in a dream, Raine reached out and pulled one down.

_ The Catastrophic Man, _ Raine murmured, reading the book's title to herself. Quickly flipping to the inside of the back dust cover she was confronted by a picture of herself looking quite serious, but with a twinkle in her eye. Raine noticed she appeared a few years older than she was presently.

Glancing up to Rinoa in complete puzzlement and shock, Rinoa explained, "You're one of my favorite writers of all time. We have fifteen of your published works in our library. I once saw a bibliography of yours in one of our old computer data bases and you had written over fifty books, but I guess these were the only ones that were saved at the end of your civilization."

"In fact," Rinoa continued, "it's a mystery how these survived, but I gather from what I'd read that someone had the foresight to keep them in a lead lined, titanium steel vault. I wonder how anyone knew to save them like that?"

"yes, I wonder," Raine murmured softly to herself. "Hey, can you check this out for me?" Raine excitedly asked.

"Sure," the hazel-eyed woman responded. "But why? You wrote it?"

"I haven't written it yet...I want to see how good a writer I am," Raine explained.

"Trust me," Rinoa said, leaning over and placing her right hand on Raine's arm. "You're awesome."

Rinoa linked her arm through one of Raine's and suggested, "Come on. We'll check this out and then go get a bite to eat."

* * *

Laurie regained consciousness several hours later and the first thing she realized was her head was throbbing with pain. As she was laying on a floor, Laurie attempted to sit up and immediately bile rose in her throat. Coughing violently, Laurie decided to immediately regain her reclining position.

The second thing she recognized was she wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing. She lay there attempting to not hysterically panic.

Glancing around her environs, she observed she was residing in a room that most closely resembled a padded cell. The room was completely covered, ceiling included, with some sort of soft, slightly bouncy, material that she wasn't familiar with. The only familiar objects she recognized was a toilet in the corner of the room next to a sink. "Thank God for that," Laurie spoke aloud, because she realized she would need to use it very soon.

Abruptly Laurie became recognizant that her body was perfectly clean and that was simply an impossibility considering all the garbage she had been laying in. _ Somebody must have bathed me, _ she thought, greatly alarmed. Slowly rolling her head to the side in order to not increase her pain, she took a whiff of her golden locks. _ Yep, _ she thought, _ Somebody's shampooed my hair too. _

Suddenly a door opened mysteriously appearing through the wall as the padding over the door was peerlessly installed to be practically invisible to the naked eye. A tall, slender, Eurasian woman of great beauty and wearing a long gown of flowered design entered the room. Laurie still felt too debilitated to move and just lay there crimson in embarrassment.

The woman closed the door behind her and then quickly moved until she was standing over the reclining young woman. The beautiful woman spoke in a husky voice, "My name is Sari. I feel I must apologize for the rude manner in which you were brought here, but your presence is of the utmost importance to my employer."

Laurie suddenly noticed that Sari was holding her clothes folded neatly, with her black shoes resting on top. _ Thank God! _ the desperate young woman thought.

Sari continued to speak, "I also apologize for removing your clothing without your permission, but they were horribly covered with garbage and needed cleaning badly. It was extremely rude of me also to leave you to suffer the indignity of being in a strange place without clothing, but I had nothing of mine to cover you that would have fit your small frame. And there is but one other woman here and asking her would have been out of the question."

The woman called Sari explained, "I will now leave your clothing." And she gracefully placed the clothing next to Laurie without seeming to bend at all.

"Are you in great pain?" questioned Sari.

Laurie slightly nodded her head. Sari continued, "I will return presently and bring you some medication to ease your pain. Please excuse my humble presence until then."

Sari deeply bowed from the waist and left the room, leaving Laurie spellbound and still unable to articulate in her amazement. 


	3. One Can Hope - Chapter three

One Can Hope

By Raine Ishida and RobertDogwood@aol.com

Chapter Three

Quistis was preparing to leave the Garden to travel to Balamb in order to do some personal shopping for items she could not acquire in the Garden. She had attempted to obtain Cid's permission to use the Ragnarok to fly to Dollet to shop, but as he was busy in morning staff meeting she decided not to wait but to take a cab to Balamb.

As she was standing by the front gate and rummaging through her purse to make certain she had brought her money, she was astonished to observe Laguna striding towards her, flanked by Kiros and Ward.

Quickly closing the distance to her, Laguna expressed, "How wonderful to see you again, Quistis. How have you been?"

Ward, not so gently, elbowed Kiros in the ribs, who stepped forward and admonished, "Ward said we don't have time for this. You can chit chat later, after we find Ellone."

Laguna turned to Ward and replied, "You said all that with a nudge from your elbow?" Ward nodded his head smiling at Laguna.

"Ellone?" Quistis said, with some alarm in her voice. "Did you say Ellone is missing?"

Returning his full attention to Quistis, Laguna concurred, "Yes, Elle's been missing for well over a week now."

Laguna continued with a fuller explanation saying, "The first couple of days she was missing, no one was concerned, because Elle's been known to need some quiet time alone before."

Kiros retorted, "Too much time with you can drive anyone into needing some quiet time alone!"

Again Ward elbowed Kiros, who interpreted, "Ward says we have to see Squall now!"

"Oh, Squall's not here," Quistis explained. "He's in Esthar searching for someone who was kidnapped from here yesterday."

This surprising statement nonplussed the three older visitors for a few seconds, until Laguna echoed, "He's in Esthar?"

As Quistis nodded in answer, Kiros complained, "Ow!" in response to Ward's latest sharp stab with his elbow.

"Ward says we go to talk to Cid now," Kiros expressed. And turning to Ward, he retorted, "And lay off that damn elbow - enough is enough!"

Quistis invited, "Cid's in morning staff meeting. I can take you there immediately. Follow me, please."

* * *

Sitting at a long conference table on the third floor of the Garden, Cid asked, "Have we heard anything from Squall yet?"

When Xu answered in the negative, Cid exclaimed, "I'm not sure I understand any of this. You say that some girl from the past was kidnapped from the Garden yesterday?"

"Yes, Cid," Xu responded patiently. She realized Cid had been worse than usual lately because Edea had been away on some sort of spiritual retreat. _ I wish she would hurry and get back here! _ Xu thought ungraciously.

"What was some girl from the past doing _ here?" _ Cid asked plaintively.

"Cid," Xu suggested, "just let it go for now."

The elevator arrived at the third floor and Laguna, Kiros and Ward stepped off followed by Quistis.

Xu immediately stood and greeted, "Welcome, President Loire."

Laguna replied, "Call me Laguna, dear and thank you."

Cid, also standing, asked, "To what do we owe the honor of your visit?"

"Ellone's missing!" answered Laguna.

* * *

A large group of men, well over a hundred in fact, were milling around on the cement floor of a warehouse that would have been completely empty, had it not been for a platform that stood in front of the crowd. Some of these men were among the most evil people on earth, while others were just plain bad, besides the ones who were human garbage and there were also, of course, ones who were just known as the scum of the earth.

There were motorcycle gang leaders, corrupt convicted politicians, former law enforcement officers who were more crooked than the criminals they were supposed to pursue, cashiered army officers from all the different countries on earth, several assassins, simple murderers and ordinary robbers and thieves. All of these men were waiting for their leader to arrive. As he was late, several fights had broken out between the army officers of differing countries based on old feuds and grudges, but had been quickly broken up by the motorcycle gang leaders.

Suddenly Seifer strode into the room with his famous gunblade, _ Hyperion, _ in his right hand resting on his shoulder. Seifer was wearing a new long military coat. His old one had gotten rather threadbare. He was followed by his two lieutenants, Raijin and Fujin. As soon as the three of them had entered the room, all eyes were on Fujin as she glanced around and a hush fell across the room. In their heart of hearts, every man in the room was frightened of her, although they never would have admitted this to another living soul. When she stared at them with her one good eye, the men felt she could see right into their evil souls and they always would glance away.

Clambering up on the platform, with Raijin and Fujin standing closely behind him one on each side, Seifer called out. "Let's get started, you guys!"

Seifer began. "I got you all together because we are very close to attacking. Each of you has your own private army of men giving us a total of about ten thousand men. Naturally this wouldn't be anywhere near as large an army needed to accomplish our goal, if it weren't for the power of the Sorceress. But combined with her, we will soon rule the world!"

The crowd broke into spontaneous cheering and applause that Seifer allowed to continue for several minutes until he put his hand up for silence.

As the hush fell once again over the crowd, Seifer ordered, "I expect all your units to be prepared for war at a moment's notice, because we will attack as soon as the Sorceress gives the command."

Seifer elaborated, "Your units are to be held at combat readiness. I will contact you all at the appropriate time. That is all."

As the trio jumped from the low platform and swept through the room, not one eye strayed from watching Fujin and no one breathed a sigh of relief until she was gone.

* * *

After Selphie, Mina and Zell reported as ordered, and as Irvine was already seated at the long conference table, Cid reconvened the meeting. He explained to them quickly concerning the disappearance of Ellone and threw the floor open for suggestions.

Quistis suggested, "Why don't we split into teams and start searching at different locations?"

"That's a very good idea, Quistis," Cid concurred. "It's that kind of thinking that makes you so valuable as a SeeD as well as an instructor."

"Okay, Irvine and I will go to Timber," Selphie responded, taking the initiative as usual. Sitting beside her, Irvine nodded absentmindedly, as he was preoccupied with stealing little glances at Mina, who he found quite lovely.

Mina whispered into Zell's left ear, and after he nodded, she explained, "Zell and I will go to Deling City." Zell nodded his head emphatically. "We'll find her," he vowed.

Kiros spoke up, "Ward and I will go to Dollet," leaving Laguna sitting beside them with a startled expression on his face. Kiros turned and said to Laguna, "We need a little quiet time, also."

Xu declared, "If it's alright with him, Laguna and I will go to Shumi Village."

"Well, of course it's alright dear," Laguna replied smiling.

After it was decided that Quistis would journey to Trabia with a _ rookie _ SeeD named Kasumi, Selphie asked, "What about Rinoa? She could help."

Cid answered emphatically, "Rinoa needs to remain here, in case Ellone attempts to contact her through Rinoa's ability as a sorceress."

Cid asked, "Does anybody have anything else they need to say, before you go?"

When no one replied, Cid stood up. "Okay, let's get going and good luck to you all."

* * *

Laurie woke with a start and sat straight up, her heart pounding and adrenaline racing through her body.

"Nightmare, dear?"

"Ahhhh!" Laurie screamed, in fright.

Sari suddenly leaned down and literally gathered Laurie to her feet in one fell swoop and embraced her until she could feel Laurie's heart beat slow.

Sari dropped her arms and took a step back. She noticed Laurie's complexion was still ash white. "I'm so sorry, dear. I didn't mean to startle you."

Laurie was still gulping air so quickly, she was almost hyperventilating.

"Come dear," Sari offered, "and sit down again," while helping Laurie to sit once again on the floor. Sari sat in front of her simply by dropping into a yoga position with her legs bent at the knees.

Finally Laurie was able to speak. "It's not your fault," she said in a weak voice. "I had a terrible nightmare."

Sari sat forward, suddenly very interested. "Can you remember anything about it, dear?" Sari asked, her eyes glittering.

"Not really, but I almost can, and I have a strong feeling that it was the same nightmare I had back at the Garden."

"Oh," Sari answered, "You had the same nightmare before? Now _ that _ is interesting. Maybe something or somebody is trying to tell you something," Sari speculated, closely watching Laurie's reaction.

Laurie looked deeply into Sari's exquisite face. "If they are, I don't know what it could be."

Sari suddenly arose in one graceful movement. "I'll bring you some breakfast. Maybe after you've received some nourishment, you'll be able to remember more. Please excuse my humble presence for a few moments."

Sari bowed from the waist and turned to leave the room. Laurie frowned at her back, intensely feeling that things were not as they appeared to be.

* * *

As Seifer stepped through the curtains into the Sorceress's bedroom, he immediately recognized he was probably in for a difficult time from the look of anger on her normally placid features.

Seifer assumed proper protocol might serve him well in this instance, so he lowered one knee. "Permission to enter?" he asked.

"Arise," the Sorceress commanded. "What is your report on the status of our army, General Almasy?"

Clicking his heels together, Seifer began to intone, "Sorceress-."

"Enough," she ordered. "Not today. Today I hurt and I ache and don't know why, but I suspect it has to do with that girl that was brought here. Today you're Seifer and I'm Kayano and we will sit together over there on that couch and talk like real people."

"Come," she invited, waving him over to the couch.

After seating himself, Seifer began again. "They're ready. I talked to them and explained the situation. In fact, they may be too ready."

Kayano asked, "What do you mean - too ready?"

"Well," Seifer explained, "if we keep them for too many days at a readiness point, by the time we really need them they'll be headed on a downward slide physically. The human body can only keep tthat fine an edge without rest for a short period of time."

"What do you suggest?" Kayano asked.

"That we step down from readiness until we know for certain that we're ready to go."

"Okay," agreed Kayano. "Give the order."

Seifer stood up to leave. "And Seifer?" Kayano said. "You'd better be right."

Seifer bowed from the waist to the Sorceress Kayano, who he had known for most of his life as the young woman called Ellone.

* * *

Squall ducked down an alley and then stood against the wall waiting to see if he was being followed. He realized he was being overly paranoid, but also recognized that he needed to be. It was the first time he had ever gone out on a mission without backup and he recognized the need for extreme caution.

Squall was in an environment that hardly anyone else in the world knew about, outside of the citizens of Esthar. And a lot of them weren't aware of it either. Squall had only heard of it, because Laguna, one day after a couple of cups of wine they were sharing, became jocular and admitted of its existence.

Squall was standing in _ underground Esthar _ - another entire city beneath the futuristic appearing above ground Esthar. This was the _ poor people's _ Esthar. Squall had always vaguely wondered why there were no less affluent citizens present in the city. Every place on earth, no matter how grandiose, had poor people; people who had less education or were handicapped in some crucial way or were simply lazy or criminal. But Esthar appeared to Squall to have none until the day that Laguna explained it to him. As soon as they were identified as not being high achievers - and it didn't take long, no sir...they would be shuttled to the underground; there to usually spend the rest of their days. Laguna did say that every once in a great while someone would earn their way back up, but it didn't happen very often.

The citizens were mainly a bitter, discontented and criminal lot and Squall knew he needed to practice eternal vigilance while he was here.

It was this knowledge that drew Squall to search for Laurie in Esthar. He had an overwhelming _ gut _ feeling that the only place in the world that Laurie could be successfully hidden would be in a place that officially didn't exist.

The difficulty he was presently experiencing was attempting to not be noticed as an intruder and to avoid any physical altercations, while endeavoring to discover someone who he could trust.

As he stepped out of the alleyway, he found his hopes of avoiding trouble were in vain, as he was immediately confronted by three burly appearing bikers holding long knives in their hands!

* * *

After Sari returned with a breakfast tray in a few minutes, Laurie sat hunched over eating as quickly as possible because she felt so vulnerable. Every time she glanced up, Sari would be placidly looking at her, but as soon as Laurie lowered her head again, she could feel Sari's eyes burning into her.

After she finished eating, Laurie sat up in a more comfortable position and smiled. "Thank you so much," she expressed. "I feel so much better."

"Better enough to remember your nightmare now?" Sari questioned, sounding somewhat sinister.

"I'm not sure," Laurie said falteringly.

Sari gained her feet as quickly and gracefully as previously and stepped next to Laurie. "What can I do to insure that you feel certain?"

Laurie knew no way to answer such a question, so she chose to remain silent, which turned out to be a strategic mistake as Sari suddenly leaned down and slapped Laurie hard across her face.

"Ow!!" Laurie screamed, "What are you doing?!!"

Sari spoke menacingly, "I need to know the details of your nightmare!"

"What?! Are you insane?!" Laurie screamed at the top of her lungs.

Sari leaned down and tore Laurie's blouse off as easily as if it had been made of tissue paper.

Quickly arising to her feet, Laurie shouted, "You bitch!"

Sari flushed angrily and slapped Laurie hard twice more and then ripped Laurie's black leather jeans to shreds.

Sari hissed, "I will strip you naked and leave you that way, if you don't tell me what I need to know. My life depends on it."

Giddy from all that had happened to her over the past twenty-four hours, Laurie giggled and taunted, "You're going to strip me naked? What are you, Sari...some kind of a lesbian?"

Sari straightened to her full height which towered over Laurie, who suddenly felt extremely frightened of her.

"A lesbian?" Sari repeated in her husky voice. "No, I think not," Sari replied, while reaching up with her left hand and removing her beautiful long dark hair wig revealing her perfectly bald scalp and then reaching down to the hem of her long gown and pulling it up over her head and off her body revealing her completely nude masculine body.

"Because I'm a man!" Sari finished the thought.

Laurie fainted.

* * *

Later in the afternoon after everyone involved in searching for Laurie had left the Garden on their respective missions, Raine and Rinoa were strolling along near the front gate and were quietly talking when Raine suddenly glimpsed tthe most gorgeous young man she had ever seen. Rinoa, hearing Raine's sudden sharp intake of air, glanced around and observed the young SeeD.

"Oh, that's Kazuya. He and Quistis just broke up and he's feeling really down," the young woman explained. "Here," she offered, raising her right hand in greeting. "I'll call him over."

"No, don't!" cried Raine, blushing at being caught out ogling him by Rinoa.

Rinoa, paying absolutely no attention to her new friend, called out. "Hey Kazuya! Come over for a second, will you? There's someone I want you to meet."

The young SeeD began to quickly stride over to the two young women. As he drew nearer, Raine observed he was quite tall, with wavy blond hair he wore on the longish side. He looked as if he possessed a spectacular looking physique beneath his clothing and he was incredibly handsome. _ Oh my God! _ Raine thought.

Once he reached the two young women, Rinoa introduced, "Kazuya, this is our visitor, Raine."

He slightly bowed and gently took her hand in his, gripping it softly and crooned in a quiet voice, "So honored to meet you." Raine stood, still blushing, in a gawky silence, completely overwhelmed by his presence.

Sensing some movement beside her, Raine turned her head and noted with horror that Rinoa was swiftly moving away from them. "Where are you going, Rinoa?" Raine queried, in an anguished tone.

Rinoa smiled impishly and explained, "I thought I'd give you two the chance to get to know each other better." And so saying, she turned and headed quickly toward the main part of the Garden.

"Come," invited Kazuya, never once letting go of her hand, but instead gently leading her over to one of the benches that were situated near the front gate. Sitting beside him on the bench, her mind whirling, Raine was relieved to note no one was in the immediate area - the _ Diamonds _ for once weren't walking back and forth from the front gate looking for a card game challenge.

Leaning forward, looking directly into Raine's frightened appearing face, Kazuya asked, "So you're our famous visitor from the past?"

When Raine silently nodded, Kazuya smiled and responded, "You don't have to be frightened of me. I won't bite." Raine giggled and a sudden smile lit up her pretty features.

"So how long have you been a SeeD?" she asked.

Kazya replied, "You must forgive me, I'm not usually so rude, but we can make the small talk later." And he suddenly swooped down, gently pressing his lips onto her's in a long, lingering kiss! As Raine felt his warm flesh and the tingle of his kiss, she thought to herself, _ Oh my God! I'm in love! _

* * *

Raine, Kazuya and Rinoa sat around a cafeteria table after just finishing their dinner. When Raine and Kazuya returned to the main part of the Garden, they discovered Rinoa standing near the front gate, as if she had been waiting for them to appear.

Deciding to invite her to go to dinner with them, they began to walk hand in hand toward her. When they approached her, Raine asked, "Rinny, would you like to have dinner with us?"

Rinoa gladly agreed and as the three of them walked towards the corridor that led to the cafeteria, Rinoa, noticing that Kazuya hadn't let go of Raine's hand the entire time, said with an impish grin, "I'm so happy to see you two hit it off so well."

"Rinoa, please," Raine begged under her breath. The ebony-haired woman glanced at Raine and offered a broad wink, but said nothing more.

As she now sat behind her dirty dishes, Rinoa was happy that Raine had kept her pledge made earlier and only had a salad for dinner. _ It just doesn't do, _ she thought, _ to pig out on your first dinner date with a new man. _

"So what are you two going to do this evening?" Rinoa questioned.

Raine lowered her head toward the table and pleaded, "Rinoa, please. Kazuya might have other plans."

"As a matter of fact," he responded, "I was going to ask if you wanted to go to the training center with me."

That startling statement certainly drew Raine's attention immediately as she raised her head, her eyes wide in apprehension. "Isn't that dangerous?" she wondered.

"Don't worry," laughed Kazuya. "I'll junction _ encounter none." _

Rinoa, standing up from the table, spoke, "Raine will meet you at 8 o'clock. She and I have some _ women's business _ to take care of."

Before Raine could question or protest, Rinoa stepped behind her chair and guided her to her feet, while Kazuya agreed, "Ok, it's a date."

* * *

Now back in Rinoa's room, Raine sat on the edge of Selphie's bed while scratching Angelo behind his right ear as he sat at her feet. "Did you want to talk to me about something, Rinoa?" Raine asked, feeling at a complete loss as to what they were doing there.

Rinoa, whose back was to Raine, was rummaging through her walk-in closet.

"Ah, there it is," the hazel-eyed woman cried and turned holding a long black gown in her hands.

"Oh, Rinoa," Raine gushed, "that's beautiful...but I couldn't wear that. I might ruin it in the training center."

"That's okay," Rinoa responded. "Somebody gave it to me and I'm too short to wear it. It'll look perfect on you!"

A few minutes later after Raine had slipped out of her outfit and into the long gown, she stood inspecting herself in Rinoa's full length wall mirror.

"What do you think?" Raine asked, feeling more than a little insecure.

"It looks wonderful on you," the ebony-haired woman cooed. "Kazuya's gonna love it."

As Raine turned back to Rinoa, Rinoa continued, "Have a wonderful time, but remember - with Kazuya you have to watch his hands every second."

"Rinoa!!" Raine protested, greatly embarrassed.

* * *

Raine was waiting for Kazuya near the end of the corridor leading to the training center, when she discovered to her misfortune that Irvine was quickly striding toward her coming from the opposite direction. She was mentally prepared for him as she had spoken with Selphie for a few minutes earlier in the day, who told her about what Irvine had attempted with Laurie.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Irvine, as he came walking up to her. "Who do we have here? I've never seen you before. Could you be Laurie's _ famous _ friend - Raine?"

Raine flushed, but responded, "Yes, I'm Raine."

Stepping close to her, he spoke, "My name is Irvine Kinneas," and as he began to lean down quickly to kiss her, a large hand suddenly gripped Irvine's right shoulder and pulled him easily away from her.

"Cowboy, I believe you're molesting my date!"

_ It's Kazuya! _ Raine thought happily, because what young woman doesn't dream of having a boyfriend who can defend her honor.

Spinning around, Irvine was confronted by the tall, unsmiling Kazuya standing in his face.

Irvine responded, "Now that I see the lay of the land, I'll be moseying along." Bowing slightly, Irvine wished them a good evening and then strode off down the corridor.

"That guy," muttered Kazuya, while shaking his head. "Are you alright?" he inquired.

Raine happily nodded. "Now that you're here."

"You look absolutely lovely in that gown, Raine," Kazuya crooned, while taking her by the hand. Raine's heart melted on the spot. "Oh, Kazuya," she murmured.

As they began strolling down the corridor towards the training center hand in hand, Raine had a sudden vivid understanding of the heartbreak that lay ahead for her, if she continued in this relationship. After all, she couldn't expect to remain here in this world, could she? And what about her family?...and her friends? Raine felt sick at heart to even contemplate leaving them behind.

_ And suppose I can't stay here anyway, even if I wanted? _ Raine thought to herself, as they stepped inside the training center.

"Why are you suddenly so pensive?" Kazuya asked.

"Oh...I'm just enjoying being with you," Raine answered.

Kazuya slightly frowned, but offered no response.

Glancing around the training center, Raine noticed that the reality once again was far different than the game. The training center was much larger and the plants and other foliage were much more lush and overcrowding the center.

_ But the short bridge is still here, _ Raine thought.

Remembering how many times she ran over that bridge with Squall and company, only to have to fight a T-Rexaur, she asked, "Have you ever fought a T-Rexaur?"

"A what?!" Kazuya asked incredulous. "What's a T-Rexuar?"

Raine didn't have the slightest idea of how to answer. She surely didn't want to mention the game, if he knew nothing about it. Kazuya would either think she was insane or it could seriously damage his sense of his own reality.

Either way, Raine was certain she didn't want to go there, so she just replied, "Oh, I don't know. Just some monster I heard about."

Stepping from the training center onto the balcony, Raine was nearly overcome with the beauty of the moonlight shining down upon the main part of the Garden and the glorious star lit night sky.

Oh Lord! Could she ever voluntarily leave this? "It's beautiful," Raine murmured to Kazuya. He smiled at her and then led her to the balcony wall. He wrapped his left arm around her shoulder pulling her close and Raine wrapped her right arm around his waist in return.

They stood that way for a long time, not saying a word, just feeling the warmth of each other, while Raine continued to ruminate. _ How could I just leave my family behind? And what about my career as a writer? I'm gonna be famous and write fifty books! How can I give that all up? _ she thought mournfully.

Suddenly, as if reading her doubts, Kazuya leaned down and began to kiss her passionately, again and again. _ Oh, I'm lost! I'm so lost! _ Raine thought desolately, as she began to return his kisses in earnest. 


	4. One Can Hope- Chapter Four

One Can Hope

By Raine Ishida and RobertDogwood@aol.com

Chapter Four

When Laurie regained consciousness, she realized Sari was no longer present in the room. As Laurie glanced around her, the only evidence that the entire episode wasn't a hideous nightmare were her clothes laying in tatters.

Laurie shivered in her skimpy bra and panties in an emotional response, rather than a physical one as the current temperature in the room was a comfortable seventy-eight degrees. She wished she would have worn more substantial undergarments.

Suddenly the door opened and a tall, blond-haired, young man wearing a long gray military coat stepped into the room.

Laurie sat on the floor, too stunned, by this recent turn of events, to even consider covering her scanty attire. _ My God! _ she thought. _ It's Seifer! _

Laurie was astonished at how incredibly handsome Seifer was in the flesh. Laurie realized she hadn't seen the _ real _ Squall as of yet, but thought to herself that he must be an Adonis if Rinoa had been so quick to throw over the extremely handsome young man standing before her.

Seifer cocked his head slightly to the left as he attempted to evaluate the young woman's toughness. "Here," he snarled, while flinging a mauve colored robe to her.

Laurie held it cradled in her arms in front of her body. Now being reasonably covered, Laurie felt emboldened enough to question, "Why was I brought here?"

Seifer responded, "Shut up! I'll be the one to ask the questions when the time comes."

As Laurie began to protest, Seifer held up his right hand to silence her and then replied, "I'll be back when I need you." And then he turned and left the room as quickly as he had appeared.

_ What in the world was that all about? _ Laurie thought to herself, as she slipped on her new robe.

* * *

"So who have we here?" the most obese of the three bikers asked sarcastically.

As Squall looked quickly from left to right, he noted the two sandwiching the middle one stood a good six inches taller than he and were flying the colors of the _ Deling City Devils _ on their motorcycle jackets.

_ Deling City?! _ Squall thought. _ I wonder what they're doing in underground Esthar? _

"Hey scumbag! I asked you a question!"

A sudden rare thought had just pushed its way through the consciousness of the biker on Squall's right, and he declared, "Hey, Boss! I think this is the guy that Seifer told us to look out for!"

Squall was amazed to witness the alacrity of the short, squat one in the middle, as he whirled and struck his cohort to the ground with one savage blow. "Shut up, Tiny," he growled. Squall quickly realized he must view them as a legitimate threat or at least the one known as 'Boss.'

Turning his attention back to Squall, the bulky biker demanded, "Okay, one more time, pretty boy. Who are ya and what are ya doing here?"

Not deigning to answer the corpulent ignoramus, Squall reached behind and pulled _ Lion Heart _ out.

"Uh, oh, Boss," the biker on the left finally spoke. "It looks like we've got a situation here."

Observing the third biker quickly regaining his feet and realizing they were going to swarm him at any second, Squall galvanized himself into action. Springing forward, he dealt 'Boss' a fearsome blow in the middle of his forehead with the butt of his gunblade, knocking him down and out of the fight completely.

** Bang! Bang! ** - ** Swish ** ...The one on the right lay dead at Squall's feet and the other biker lay with a dangerous looking wound in his lower stomach oozing blood. Quickly hurrying away from the carnage at the scene of his _ crime, _ Squall realized desolately that his cover had now been blown and decided he needed to go 'topside' to search for assistance.

* * *

Raijin stepped inside Seifer's private quarters at the temporary camp for his First Division located on the plains just outside of the Sollet Mountains near Esthar.

"Hey, Seifer! There's some guy out here named Boss Tweed to see ya."

From where he was sitting in a canvas back chair, Seifer nodded his permission. Fujin automatically arose from the small sofa she had been sitting on and stood close to Seifer.

Raijin stepped back inside behind the short, squat biker that Squall had tangled with just a short time before. As Boss Tweed stepped up in front of Seifer, maintaining a respectful distance, Seifer demanded, "Well, what is it? Do you have anything to report?"

I'd say I had a snootful to report!" the burly biker exclaimed angrily.

"I would advise you to be respectful," Seifer suggested calmly. "You never know what might set Fujin off."

Fujin took one step forward and fixed Boss Tweed with her one good eye, causing him to shiver and glance away.

"Begging your pardon, Cap't," Boss Tweed immediately responded. "I didn't mean nothing disrespectful - I just lost two of my boys and I'm real upset."

"Why are you coming to me with this? What do you expect me to do?" Seifer demanded.

"It's because of you," Boss Tweed began to say, but stopped when Fujin took another step closer.

"I'll start over. You know, the guy you told us to keep any eye out for?" the heinous hooligan asked. Seifer nodded in affirmation.

"Well, we ran into him alright and he took out two of my best guys, just like that!" Boss Tweed exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "And I wanna know what you're gonna doing about it."

Seifer thundered, "You're lucky I don't have you shot, you moron!"

Boss Tweed flushed heavily, but did nothing because of the close proximity of Fujin and the infamous reputation of Seifer.

"I told you to make contact with him - not rumble with him. Oh, what's the use?" Seifer said wearily. "Raijin, get him out of my sight."

Raijin, being uncertain of Seifer's present mood, moved with more alacrity than usual and hustled the obese barbarian from the large tent in record time and then stepped back inside.

"Come here. There's something I need you to do," ordered Seifer.

As Raijin moved closer, Seifer explained, "I need you to find Squall and take this message to him. I need you to tell him that Ellone is the Sorceress and not to do anything to hurt her, so we can figure out a way to help her regain herself. Do you understand me?"

"Yeah," Raijin rumbled.

"Good, repeat it back to me," Seifer commanded.

"Squall needs to protect Ellone," Raijin replied.

"And?"

"Ya know, uh...something about the Sorceress," Raijin stammered.

Seifer spoke resignedly. "And Ellone is the Sorceress."

"And Ellone is the Sorceress," Raijin mimicked. "Ellone is the Sorceress!" Raijin exclaimed. "Are you sure about that, Seifer? That doesn't make any sense!"

As Seifer expelled a large sigh in prelude to speech, Fujin ordered, "RAGE!"

"Alright, alright, I'm leaving," Raijin acquiesced and turned and left the large tent.

Seifer hoped that Raijin could accomplish this simple task, because Ellone's very life might depend on it. He realized he should have sent Fujin, but his present situation was precarious at best and he needed Fujin to cover his back.

He sat back in his chair wearily and closed his eyes.

* * *

After dropping Laguna and Xu off at Shumi Village, the young SeeD pilot pointed the Ragnarok in a south-easterly direction and headed toward Trabia Garden. The old Estharian ship was still so swift that it touched down on the Bika snowfields just outside of Trabia Gartden in a little less than a quarter of an hour.

Quistis and Kasumi, a petite, dark-haired, well proportioned, young beauty disembarked from the Ragnarok. Even though it was just past mid-day, the temperature wasn't anywhere near as warm as the freezing point and the chilly wind blew incessantly. Kasumi shivered in her brand new SeeD uniform, which Quistis thought appeared extremely short on her new charge.

Quistis smiled thinly at her while directing, "Let's hurry and get out of this cold."

Striding toward the front gates, Quistis immediately recognized that an immense amount of work had been accompanied in the rebuilding project over the past few months. The temporary wooden wall which had been constructed to keep out the elements and the various monsters that roamed the immediate area was gone and a permanent one had replaced it. Quistis observed that it appeared from the outside that the second floor had been completed also, but the third floor was still open to the elements because the roof had not yet been completed.

Quistis spoke to the two young SeeDs that were serving as guards at the front gate. "Quistis Trepe from Balamb Garden here to speak with your Headmaster."

"Oh, no need to intoduce yourselves," one of the SeeDs, an attractive young woman, explained, "We certainly know who you are. How's Selphie?" she asked.

Greatly surprised, Quistis exclaimed, "You must be Kaede! Selphie's doing fine."

It was now the young Trabia Garden SeeD's turn to be surprised. "Selphie's told you about me?"

Quistis nodded. "Selphie's told me all about her best friend of all time."

As the young female SeeD beamed with happiness, Quistis asked, "Is the coffee shop repaired? Can we get some cheesecake?"

"Yes!" Kaede laughed. "As soon as I'm off duty."

"Can we take this reunion inside, please?" Kasumi whined. "I'm turning blue."

Quistis, greatly desiring to tell the rookie SeeD to toughen up quick or things would only get worse, bit her tongue and simply agreed with Kasumi's assessment.

Once inside Trabia Garden, they were turned over to another SeeD, who offered to guide them to the Headmaster's office. On the way, Quistis questioned who the present Headmaster was. "Zidane Strife," was the answer from their guide.

After the accompanying SeeD entered the Headmaster's office and informed him that the two SeeDs from Balamb Garden desired an appointment, Quistis and Kasumi were immediately whisked into the presence of the Headmaster.

Zidane Strife, unlike Cid, looked as if he could lead a charge of SeeDs into battle himself. As he arose to his feet from behind his desk to welcome the visitors, Quistis observed a tall, slightly older, thin but wiry looking man, who possessed rugged good looks and wore his longish blond hair in a spike cut.

Quistis spoke. "Thank you for receiving us so quickly. I am Quistis-."

The Headmaster interrupted, "Quistis Trepe, your well deserved reputation precedes you. And you are?" he asked turning toward Kasumi, a broad smile visible across his rugged features.

As Kasumi introduced herself, Quistis couldn't help but notice that Zidane was quite taken with the young ninja. Inviting them to sit down, the youngish blond-haired man reseated himself and asked, "To what do I owe the honor of your visit?"

After Quistis quickly informed him of their mission, he claimed to have no certain helpful information, but went on to add that there had been some strange activities occurring around Trabia Garden during each night that might have something to do with it.

"Like what?" Quistis questioned.

Headmaster Strife explained, "There's some sort of enemy troop movement in the adjoining area, but just far enough away that we never get a good look. Not knowing what to expect, I've been loath to send out some of my young SeeDs to reconnoiter at night and in the daytime they're always gone, but we see evidence in the snow of their presence. We've tried to track them, but have always reached a dead end."

"How about we do a little spying of our own this evening?" Quistis asked, smiling at Kasumi.

* * *

Kiros and Ward were presently occupying the most luxurious suite the _ Hotel Dollet _ had to offer. They had taken the noon train from Balamb and then immediately boarded the train to Dollet arriving in the early mid-afternoon.

As Kiros paced back and forth across the length of their suite, Ward lay comfortably atop a number of cushions on the king sized bed casually eating from a huge plate of squid balls. He studied the room with great satisfaction, as it was extremely ornate with a number of pictures of the walls, and held built-in shelves with books and pottery. There was a beautiful desk with two lamps sitting upon it and a white shag carpet.

Kiros suddenly ceased his pacing and whirled confronting Ward. "Just what are we doing here?"

Ward smiled and nodded at his plate.

"No, I don't mean that!" Kiros exclaimed. "I mean why aren't we out looking for Ellone?"

Ward arched his left eyebrow.

"What do you mean you know she's not here? Why did you want to come here then?"

Ward smiled again and pointed at the room with his right hand and nodded.

Kiros smiled slightly. "Just to get away from Laguna for a day and relax for a change and enjoy ourselves?"

Ward nodded broadly.

Kiros agreed. "Okay, I see your point. We could use a break. Let's go get something expensive to eat and then do up the town right! We can go back to Esthar in the morning."

Ward quickly agreed by standing up and saying.........

* * *

Squall was ushered into the private lab of Dr. Odine by the Estharian soldier, who had been standing guard outside. Squall had never been certain if the guard was assigned by Laguna to help keep angry citizens out or to stop Dr. Odine from escaping into the greater world.

As Squall glanced around the huge laboratory, with the usual assortment of Odine's bells and whistles, he saw the little man in the corner hunched over a huge computer and talking under his breath to himself.

Squall had always thought, rather ungraciously to be sure, that the good doctor resembled nothing else but a small clown, what with his usual outfit that consisted of a red vest over a purple shirt, blue bell bottoms and topped off with a red and white round collar that was as large as an inner-tube.

Dr. Odine suddenly noticed Squall and called out, "Hey, young Laguna. What is it you vant?" Dr. Odine began to walk over to him.

Squall responded austerely, "My name isn't young Laguna. It's Squall."

"Vatever," the good doctor replied. "You have come to talk?"

When Squall nodded, his head, Dr. Odine declared, "Zat iz nice. What is it you vant to talk concerning?"

Squall discovered himself wondering what planet this guy had come from - it certainly wasn't this one.

Squall explained, "Have you heard anything about a girl named Laurie, who entered our time from the past?"

Doctor Odine nodded his head vigorously. "Yes, I have. I believe she has somehow become entangled with Ellone."

"Ellone?!" Squall responded. "Vat - I mean what are you talking about?"

"You haven't heard of Ellone's disappearance?"

"No, I haven't tell me!" Squall spoke highly agitated, wanting to do nothing less than pick the tiny doctor up and hold him upside down and shake the information out of him.

"I believe sat some-ting veird happened to Ellone on your vay back from time compression," Dr. Odine explained.

"What?!" Squall demanded.

"If I knew zat, I would tell you, wouldn't I. At vat point, did Ellone begin to act vithdrawn?" questioned Dr. Odine.

"I don't know that!" Squall cried plaintively. "I haven't seen Sis for months."

"Oh, zat is too bad. Zhen only zat big dumb lummox Laguna can help me. I can only tell you this - Ellone and zat girl are connected somehow. Find one and you find the other."

* * *

Walking down an alley, shortly after returning to _ underground _ Esthar following his rather bizarre interview with Dr. Odine, Squall was astonished to perceive Raijin stepping toward him from the other end.

Squall immediately squared off in his traditional fighting stance, keeping his right hand close to _ Lion Heart. _

As Raijin stepped closer, he held up a huge right hand and exclaimed, "Yo, Squall!" causing Squall to comprehend that Raijin was indicating that he came in peace. Squall relaxed his vigilance, because Raijin may have been many things in the past, but never _ two-faced. _ If he were your enemy, he was a straight forward _ in your face _ one.

Finally reaching Squall, Raijin spoke excitedly, "Thank Hyne I found you. I've been looking for hours. I thought I'd never be able to return to camp, because Seifer ain't in a good mood, ya know?"

"Seifer?" echoed Squall. _ What is the hell is Seifer doing here? _ Squall thought to himself.

"Yeah, Seifer, ya know," Raijin repeated, vigorously nodding his head. "He sent you a message. He told me to tell you to protect Ellone."

"Ellone?" echoed Squall. "What about Ellone?!"

"Squall," Raijin chastised, "Would you please concentrate on the information that I am attempting to impart to you?"

Squall gave his head a vigorous shake assuming there was something wrong with his hearing.

"Yeah, ya know, Ellone," Raijin continued. "Seifer told me to tell ya to protect her."

"Where is she and protect her from who?" Squall demanded.

"Uh...ya know, he didn't tell me - wait...he told me that ya needed to protect her from the Sorceress. Yeah, that's it! Seifer told me you had to protect Ellone from the Sorceress."

"Sorceress?" echoed Squall. "What Sorceress?"

"Squall!" Raijin said firmly, "You have to quit repeating everything I say. Now I gave ya the message, ya know and I'm going. If you want to talk to Seifer, we're in camp by the Sollet Mountains."

"In camp?!" echoed Squall.

"Oh, no, here we go again," protested Raijin.

* * *

The train was rather quiet for that time of night, but it was to be expected. Zell was silently reading an issue of Combat King that Mina had snuck from the library for him, and Mina herself was practicing dance moves on the carpet of the SeeD room that had been specially requested for them by Headmaster Cid.

"Why do you dance?" Zell asked, glancing up from his magazine. Mina stopped her fluent movements to look at him. "What?"

"Why do you dance?" he repeated.

Mina frowned. "What do you mean, why?"

"Exactly what I mean, why. Why do you dance?" he insisted, setting his issue of Combat King on the cushion beside him.

Mina frowned again. "Why are you so curious?"

Zell rose from his seat. "Am I not allowed to be?"

"Well sure, but-."

"Then tell me. What do you get out of dancing?"

"Well..." Mina started. "I get to know a lot of people, I stay in shape."

"That's a good thing," Zell interrupted, wrapping his arms around her waist, "because you look great."

Mina grinned. "It's something I'm passionate for. You love martial arts. I love to dance. We love them for our own reasons. Does fighting hold a special place in you heart?" she asked.

Zell nodded. "You know it's all about my Grandfather."

Mina rested her head on his chest. "I dance because it makes me feel happy. And there are plenty of things besides dancing that make me happy."

Zell considered that. "Oh, yeah? Like what?"

"Being with you," she replied. "Sure, you're an idiot sometimes, but a lovable one."

That comment stupefied him. "Hey! Not fair!"

Mina squirmed out of his grasp and took a seat next to his magazine. "It's late, don't you think we should get some rest?"

"With a body like yours, who needs rest?" Zell retorted.

Mina snickered. "I"m sorry, am I too distracting?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think so. We should try emergency evasive maneuvers."

"And what were those again?" She was curious to see how creative he could be with his answers.

"Where I grab you and hold you so I can't see you anymore."

"Ah, I seem to recall that being comforting. Now, I want to sleep. Come here and prove your theory."

* * *

Quistis leaned over and lightly touched Kasumi, who was slumbering on her borrowed SeeD bed. Kasumi awoke immediately and sat up. "Is it time?" she asked.

Quistis nodded. "Yes, it's past dusk."

As Kasumi stood up, Quistis handed her a coat saying, "Zidane Strife wanted you to have this."

As Kasumi slipped on the fur lined winter SeeD jacket, it hung down to her knees on her slight frame. "Ooh, it's so warm," Kasumi exclaimed. "But why would he give me his personal coat?"

Quistis replied caustically, "I suppose it's because he's appreciative-."

Kasumi arched her right eyebrow at Quistis, as if daring her to continue.

"Of our volunteering to discover who's lurking outside their Garden," Quistis offered.

"Let's go," the blonde SeeD directed tersely.

* * *

Stepping outside into the almost completely darkened night, as there was very little light available from the quarter moon due to cloud cover, Quistis and Kasumi soon understood that the temperature had dipped below zero.

Treading lightly in the snow, the two young women kept walking away from Trabia Garden among the ever increasing snow flurries until they were about a half of mile distant.

Grimacing with the cold, Kasumi glanced at Quistis, who nodded back. _ Yes...it is damn cold! _ her expression admitted.

Silently standing, the two young SeeDs grew even colder as they continued to monitor their immediate area for any type of movement or sound.

Quistis whispered, "Take a few steps in that direction and see if you can discover anything. I'll go this way, but for Hyne's sake - don't go too far. We don't want to become separated in this."

Kasumi nodded her understanding and did as directed, still not seeing or hearing anything out of the ordinary.

It began to snow, lightly at first and then harder. The wind had increased and it was quickly too difficult for them to see anything but immediately in front of their faces. The snow fell harder soon resembling a veritable blizzard.

Just as Kasumi was preparing to call out to Quistis to discover her whereabouts, she heard, "Hey Burt! How much longer do we have to wait to attack? I'm getting sick of this crap."

A voice, whom Kasumi assumed was the aforementioned Burt, answered, "I'm not sure Ernie. It all has to do with the Sorceress, who is in Esthar and the girl who she kidnapped."

Kasumi thought excitedly, _ There's a new Sorceress?! _ She assumed the kidnapped girl they were speaking of was Ellone.

Kasumi greatly wished she knew where Quistis was, but she couldn't even really be certain where the two men were, as the wind played tricks with her hearing and carried their voices all around her.

Suddenly a intense light blinded Kasumi, as she heard one of the men say, "So who do we have here?" A sharp blow to the back of her head caused her to lapse into immediate unconsciousness.

* * *

Kasumi awoke in a cavern inside a primitive cell, whose bars consisted of steel poles sunk closely together and a ceiling that was made out of plywood. She was schackled on the cavern wall with her feet off the ground and her arms held up above her head. She quickly realized they had taken her coat, as she shivered in her uniform.

Two large, extremely ugly men, who were untrimmed full beards and resembled demented lumberjacks, approached the cell.

"That one's a real cutie, ain't she, Ernie?"

"That she is, Burt. Too bad we're gonna have to wait for the captain. He's probably gonna want to question her."

"Oh, yeah," Burt agreed. "He'll want to question her alright. I only hope he wants me to help."

Some of the men were already beginning to drift in having completed their nightly maneuvers and were already excitedly approaching Kasumi's cell whooping and hollering.

Kasumi thought grimly, _ Just unshackle my arms and legs and I'll take as many as I can with me, before they have to kill me. _

The captain finally arrived and was quickly apprised of the situation by Burt and Ernie. He wasted no time ordering Burt to bring the prisoner out and as Burt unlocked the cell, which was held by a padlocked chain, Kasumi was gratefully astonished to observe Quistis racing through the open door of the cavern quickly followed by Zidane Strife leading a large contingent of SeeDs and upper-classmen in full battle regalia, who quickly launched a full scale attack on the mysterious army of bedraggled appearing soldiers.

When Quistis observed Kasumi hanging from the wall and the man inside her cell, she appeared to go into a fully psychotic rage and began striking _ Save the Queen _ with such savage force and violence that she was laying men out stone cold dead with each flick of her weapon on her way to Kasumi's open cell.

Forcing her way past Ernie by knocking him rudely to the ground, she discovered Burt kneeling pleading for his life. Quistis had just decided to allow him to live, when she happened to catch a glimpse out of the corner of her eye of the pathetically shivering and fully frightened Kasumi still hanging from the wall, and she flicked _ Save the Queen _ - ** CRAACK! ** - at the pile of human excrement that passed for a life kneeling in front of her and snapped his neck as if it were only a twig.

As Burt fell over already dead, Quistis turned her attention to Kasumi, only to see Zidane had taken his huge old fashioned _ buster _ sword and broken her bonds and caught her in his arms, before she could fall to the floor.

Quistis couldn't help, but notice that the Headmaster appeared to hold Kasumi safe in his arms in a tight embrace longer than was necessary. _ Oh, well, _ Quistis thought, _ he deserves a little something for his effort. _

Racing up to Kasumi, Quistis grasped her by the hand and commanded, "To the Ragnarok quickly!" Literally pulling the weakened Kasumi along, they raced through the falling enemy soldiers.

Once safely ensconced on the Ragnarok, Brian, who was known to practically everyone in the Garden as the _ Conceited SeeD, _ took one look at the frozen beauty of Kasumi and adoration filled his eyes, as he quickly removed his long woolen coat and wrapped it around her.

As Quistis realized that Brian had never quit in his obnoxious quest of Mina, she couldn't wait to tell her that she had witnessed his torch being passed to the figure of Kasumi.

Later as Kasumi was sufficiently warmed enough to converse and the Ragnarok was on its way to Shumi Village, Kasumi questioned, "However did you find me in that storm?"

Quistis replied, "After I heard you being abducted, I knew I didn't stand a prayer of locating where they were taking you in that storm and I was fortunate enough to find my way back to Trabia Garden. Just as I arrived there, the Ragnarok landed on its way to Shumi Village to pick up Xu and Laguna in the morning. I wasted no time informing Zidane and he quickly rounded up his force and we all went up in the Ragnarok, which used its infra-red radar to locate you inside that labyrinth of caverns that ran halfway inside the mountain."

Kasumi halfway sat up from her makeshift bed across two of the seats in the passenger lounge that was covered by Brian's long coat and several blankets and said seriously, "Thank you, Quistis. I owe you my life."

Quistis smiled at the slight figure of Kasumi and replied, "Lay back down, Kasumi and get some rest. We're gonna need you at your best when we get to Esthar tomorrow."

Complying with Quistis' directive, Kasumi murmured, "Good night."

* * *

"We're in Timber right now, Headmaster. Yeah, the train ride was swell...yep, the room was great. Yeah. Yes, right. Of course. Thanks."

Zell waited around impatiently, as Mina spoke with Headmaster Cid on the phone in the Timber hotel.

"Yeah, we have a way to Deling. We're renting a car," Mina told the Headmaster.

Zell heard Cid's reaction. "You're trusting Zell to drive?"

He frowned. "I can so drive."

Mina ignored him and continued to speak with Cid. "Yes, Headmaster. He's driving. Don't worry. I'll make sure he follows road rules. Of course, I'll report in when we reach Deling. Okay, bye bye."

She hung up the phone and rubbed her ear. "Oh sheesh, that was painful. What a weirdo," she muttered before slipping her hand into Zell's.

"Let's go rent a car."

"You're trusting me to drive?" he asked, flabbergasted.

Mina giggled. "You heard what I told the Headmaster, of course I do! It's not like you failed your driver's test a million times."

Zell appeared a little hestiant. "Uh..."

Mina laughed. "Oh, who cares. If all else fails, I'll drive."

* * *

The car they were given was a complete disgrace.

"You want us to drive to Deling in that?!" Mina cried.

The man, in his forties, obviously not happy with his job, remained silent, his cigarette in his hand, his expression as sour as the moment Zell and Mina had stepped into the room.

Mina scowled, snatched the keys from the man's filthy hands and went to the parking lot to find their car.

The car wasn't in that bad of shape to Mina's surprise, and ran well. Ten minutes into the trip, Mina came to the conclusion that the car really wasn't much of a clunker after all.

Zell was leaning back as far as the front seat would go, his red sneakered feet up on the dash board. He appeared very bored, which wasn't surprising. There was no room in the car for shadow boxing.

Eventually his gaze fell upon his girlfriend. He was pleased to see that her lovely SeeD uniform showed off the majority of her shapely legs, and the top that went with uniform was riding up with how she sat.

When she caught him staring at her for the fifth time, she grinned. "Take a cold shower, would you?"

"Only if you come with me," he suggested with a smirk, leaning back on the seat a little more.

"I could always make you sleep on the floor, when we get to the hotel in Deiling," she replied.

Zell grinned, his eyes closed in relaxation. "You think that will stop me?"

Mina returned the smile, and her eyes glittered with mischief. "My fist will stop you, that's for sure."

Zell stopped his mouth from emitting sound - he knew she was right.

"Now, we've got about three hours of driving to do. We need to play a game of something."

"We don't have a bottle, and the floor's too cluttered to play."

Mina shook her head in disbelief. "You don't stop, do you?"

Zell smiled slightly. "I'm a guy. It's my nature. I can't help it, ya know. Er-uh...you know."

Mina just smiled again and was silent for nearly twenty minutes before Zell let out a wail of frustration. "I'm so booooooored!" he howled.

Mina narrowed her eyes, yet kept them on the road ahead.

"Well, why don't we play truth or dare?" she suggested. Zell's face lit up and he moved his seat back into a seating position.

"We don't have room to do dares..." he noted.

Mina nodded. "True. Then let's make it truth or truth, how about that?"

Zell raised an eyebrow. "I guess."

"Do you want to go first?" Mina asked.

"What, me ask you a truth?" he asked.

She nodded. "Make it fun, come on, Zell. We don't want this to be a boring trip, now do we?"

Zell grinned. "As a dancer, I'm sure you've seen many types of different people in tights. Now tell me, would I look good in tights?"

Mina laughed. "What kind of question was that?"

"One that I want to know the answer to."

"Baggy jeans suit you just fine, Zell."

Zell glanced down at his pants, and smiled. "Lots of room, you know."

"I'm sure two people could fit in there."

"Wanna try?"

Mina smacked him on the leg for that comment. "Okay, from now on, how about you stay quiet and we enjoy the scenery."

Zell peered out the dirty window. A Geezard was fighting another Geezard over remains of what appeared as a bite bug. "Whoop de doo."

"I told you not to speak," Mina instructed.

"Damn it, woman, you've got me whipped..." Zell muttered, crossing his arms, preparing for the long and silent trip ahead.

* * *

Zell whined the entire way. "Do we HAVE to go shopping?"

Mina dragged him along by his hand, as he walked behind her, slumped over.

Mina grinned happily. "Of course! We're in Deling. You can't go to Deling and not visit the shopping center! Now come on! I have gil, and I wanna spend it! I need some new dancing shoes, and I want to check out the _ Dance Box. _ They always have new stuff."

"I'll only allow myself to get sucked into this, if you promise me you'll model new leotards," Zell muttered. Mina smacked him on the back of the head.

"Stand up straight, you're with a lady."

"Unfortunately," Zell replied as quietly as he could.

Mina frowned. "Alright, then, I guess you don't get to see those new leotards...I bet they were really nice too, nice and tight, so body fitting...don't you just love how they hug my curves?"

Zell hung his head, then lifted his eyes to scan her body hid by her outfit. Either way, her short skirt showed off her lengthy legs and Zell groaned impatiently. "You're doing this to torture me, aren't you?"

"Of course I am, now come on. _ Dance Box _ is right ahead!" Mina cried, opening the door and entering the unoccupied store.

After waiting for what felt like hours, Mina finally selected new shoes.

"It's a time consuming process!" Mina explained, as she shook Zell awake.

"No tight form-fitting outfits to model for me, I take it?" he asked, rubbing his eyes irritably.

She grinned. "That's being saved for the next store, come on!"

"It better be lingerie," Zell muttered. No such luck. Clothes and lots of them.

Mina was in too much of a good mood, Zell thought. Her mouth would not stop moving. "I mean, you heard what we need to do. We need to remain low profile. New outfits would totally rock anyway! Come on, Zell. Let's get some new clothes!"

"What wrong with my clothes..." Zell muttered.

Mina shook her head. "People might recognize you. Don't ask me how, they just might, okay?"

After what seemed like three weeks, Mina had selected some clothes of her choice. "Wait here," she instructed. "I'm going to try these on."

"They better be to my liking," Zell muttered. Mina winked. "You don't care either way, do ya?"

Zell shook his head. "Just hurry up, my legs are going to fall off."

Mina was quick to her word, and exited the change room in less than five minutes. Her clothes were an obvious hit, on the Zell scale of one to ten, she figured a fourteen was in line.

She wore a short white denim skirt, and a blue top that bared her flat stomach. The shirt had a picture of an angel on it, and on the back of it, there was a quote. "I didn't do it, I swear."

Mina had also gotten rid of her boots, and wore sandals; Zell was pleased.

"Great. Glad you like it, now hurry. You're next!" she cried, a huge smile lighting her face up.

Zell protested, but after minutes, Mina was able to to shove him into the change room without further argument.

Seconds later, Zell emerged, dressed completely different. Baggy black jeans that hung low on his hips, and a white muscle shirt. Mina topped off the ensemble with a thick gold chain and some sunglasses.

"Now you look sexy," she remarked, running her hand up his bare arm.

He smiled and nodded. "I could say the same for you. However, I think your skirt needs to be shorter."

"Shut up, will you? For a moment, why don't you not let your raging hormones do the talking? Let's go buy the stuff."

* * *

As Xu lay in a back bedroom in the Elder's house, waiting for sleep to overtake her, she thought about the events of the past day and realized if it hadn't been for the fact that he was worried sick about the whereabouts of Ellone, this would have been a grand homecoming for Laguna.

He apparently hadn't been back since Ellone had been a small child and the Shumi had waited patiently all these years knowing he would return one day. _ They probably have a Laguna alarm on the elevator, _ Xu thought ruefully.

Whatever the reason, the Shumi all knew when he was on his way down and were all gathered to greet him when he stepped off the elevator; even the Elder and his assistant were there. Xu realized Laguna had been touched by all the attention, because he couldn't think of anything to say.

_ That had to be a first, _ Xu thought.

But as far as their mission, the visit had been a total bust-out. The Shumi had no ideas at all. They lived just too far out in the wilderness to be of any assistance. Xu discovered herself hoping the Ragnarok was on time in the morning. She didn't want to spend one extra minute away from civilization, if she didn't have to. 


	5. One Can Hope- Chapter Five

One Can Hope

By Raine Ishida and RobertDogwood@aol.com

Chapter Five

Zell didn't know which was worse. Shopping with Mina, or sharing a room with Mina. Not only did she lock the door when she was in the bathroom, but she was always fully dressed for night or day when she came out.

At least the hotel had screwed up and they'd gotten a room with one bed. However, Zell respected her, and knew that if he let his hands get out of control, he'd taste a bit of her fist. And that was a fist that packed a powerful chomp.

Out of habit, he'd always sleep on the wrong side. However, to him, it was the right side of the bed. To Mina, it was the wrong side.

That night in Deling, when she exited the bathroom, fully prepared to sleep the night away, (Damn, Zell thought) the first thing she did was leap atop Zell and shake him out of his zone of thought.

"Ack! What the hell? What are you doing?" he cried, snapping out of his trance.

"I'm getting you off my side," Mina replied with a grin, sitting on top of his chest. "Or do I have to use force?"

Zell gave a snide grin. "Force? Sounds kinky. Try that."

That resulted in a slap from Mina, and he cried out, "Okay, okay! I'll move! Sheesh."

At last, the light was out, Mina was content, as was Zell. For it wasn't often he got to sleep in the same bed with his girlfriend.

"Night Mimi," he whispered, planting a gentle kiss on the side of her face. She was already half asleep and could only muster up a smile in return.

Draping his arm over her waist, Zell fell asleep to the sound of Mina's soft breathing.

………………..

Selphie finally decided she and Irvine should just travel on the Balamb train to Timber, since the Ragnarok was busy flying different groups hither and yon and back again. Unfortunately she didn't reach this decision until most of the day had passed, consequently she and Irvine didn't arrive in Timber until long past dark.

Stepping down from the train in the center of Timber, Selphie directed Irvine left and they walked quickly along until pausing in front of the building next to the _Timber Maniacs_ building. Knocking gently on the door, they waited patiently for someone to come to the door. Selphie distinguished from a tiny circle of light that was momentarily visible from the house that someone was peering at them through a peep hole.

The door opened and Selphie immediately recognized the rotund figure of Rinoa's friend, Sayoko, the erstwhile leader of the presently defunct _Forest Foxes_.

"Why, Selphie!" Sayoko exclaimed, "What a surprise! Is Rinoa with you?" she asked, while peering past Selphie into the street.

"No," Selphie explained, "Rinoa's needed back at the Garden. We have a bit of a problem. May we come in?"

"Of course, of course," Sayoko responded. "How rude of me to leave you all standing outside. I was just so surprised to see you after all this time."

Stepping first into the downstairs living area, Selphie, followed closely by Irvine, noticed that everything still looked the same, including the glowering expression of Sayoko's seventeen year old daughter, Kyoko. Selphie figured it was safe to assume that Kyoko remembered Selphie's cutting remark that her mother's beauty must surely be a legend.

Sayoko invited them to sit around the table and served them something to eat, despite Selphie and Irvine's protestations to the contrary. After eating with them, Sayoko pushed back slightly from the table, smiled and asked, "Just what seems to be the trouble?"

Selphie quickly explained the mysterious disappearance of Ellone and their quest to locate her as quickly as possible.

"No, I haven't heard a thing," Sayoko replied, shaking her head. Glancing at her watch and perceiving it was already past eleven at night, Sayoko continued, "Since it's already so late, you're more than welcome to spend the night. Take the first bedroom on the left."

Standing up from the table, Sayoko stifled a yawn, excused herself and stated, "I don't even know if Zone and Watts are in town. I haven't seen them in over a week. If you can find them, maybe they'll know something."

Sayoko then excused herself and went upstairs to her bedroom.

Irvine sat with a large grin on his vacuous appearing face looking forward to the long night to be spent together with Selphie in the same bedroom.

Selphie suddenly demanded, "Irvine! Wipe that silly look off your face and let's go!"

"Go?" Irvine echoed, "Go where?"

"Why out to look for Zone and Watts, of course!" Selphie explained, while arising from the table and then pulling Irvine to his feet.

"But Selphie," Irvine complained, "I was thinking of going to bed. I'm tired."

"Yeah, I know what you were thinking," Selphie retorted in a sarcastic tone. "You were thinking of going to bed alright, but it had nothing to do with sleep!"

"Now come on!" she directed while pulling him outside the house, making sure to glance around first for anything suspicious.

They walked from one end of Timber to the other, not passing a solitary soul on their journey. The houses were all darkened and it was unnaturally quiet for a town of this size.

Selphie declared, "I know it's late, but it's not _that_ late. There's something odd going on around here."

Irvine suggested, "Why don't we go see if anything's happening at the pub?"

Selphie was agreeable to this suggestion, having no other options at this point and they briskly set off down the street back to where they had began their nocturnal journey. Immediately upon beginning to step down the staircase that led to the _Amphor Pub_, they both realized there was still some life to the town, as loud raucous rock and roll was emanating from inside the pub.

Irvine held the pub door open for Selphie, and as she stepped inside she couldn't believe her own eyes. Selphie had never seen the pub like this before. It was completely jam packed with people from one end of the pub to the other.

Following quickly upon Selphie's heels, Irvine noticed that the crowd consisted mainly of rough looking men of all varieties, including a number of burly bikers and some army officers wearing uniforms unfamiliar to Irvine, plus several well known ladies of the evening.

There were so many people crammed into such a small space, Selphie and Irvine's sudden appearance appeared to go completely unnoticed by the inhabitants of the pub.

The jukebox was turned up so loud that Selphie had to scream to be heard by Irvine, who was standing beside her. "What are we going to do now?" Selphie shouted. "If Zone and Watts are here, we'd never be able to find them!"

Irvine screamed in return. "Let's just wait until it clears out a little! I'll get us some drinks! Why don't you squeeze yourself in that corner over there and wait for me?!"

Selphie nodded in agreement to save her already slightly damaged vocal cords. A few minutes later, Irvine reappeared through the crowd holding two large sized glasses in his hands. Giving one to Selphie, he took a sip out of his.

"What is this?!" Selphie shouted to be heard.

"Sake!" replied Irvine.

"Sake?!" Selphie hollered. "I never saw Sake served like this!"

Irvine explained in a loud tone, "I asked for it like that! So I wouldn't have to go back through that crowd to the bar anytime soon!"

Selphie tentatively took a sip. _Yeah_, _it's Sake alright_, she thought, as she immediately felt the warmth from the drink spread throughout her body. Discovering it to be to her liking, Selphie took another sip and then another. She felt the alcohol spreading through her body, soothing her jangled nerves  and causing her to feel less impatient.

As the din from the crowd and the extremely loud music precluded any idle chit-chat from occurring between she and Irvine, Selphie sipped her drink while keeping a constant eye out for Zone and Watts. She scarcely noticed when she finished her first glass and immediately had another one placed in her hand by the ever enterprising Irvine.

Taking another sip, Selphie recognized she was already enveloped in the warm, hazy, comfortable stage of intoxication, but presently didn't care. _I can use a break_, she thought indignantly as though someone was arguing with her.

Selphie took a large gulp and coughed for a second and then tugged on the sleeve of Irvine's long cattleman's coat to get his attention. "What, Selphie?" Irvine asked, leaning down in her face in order to hear her.

Selphie thought Irvine appeared a little green and giggled. "Irvy," Selphie slightly slurred. "Maybe we should be heading back. I feel a little lightheaded."

As though he was offering her his answer, Irvine began to kiss her, slipping his tongue into her mouth at the first opportunity. Selphie moaned lowly and returned his kiss in earnest, while thinking, _What is going on here_? It was her last conscious thought for the next several hours.

………………..

It was three o'clock in the morning. In her bedroom, she tossed her head back and forth on the plush pillow viciously. The room was swirling in purple and black, trying to swallow her, it seemed. A giant Ultima, or maybe even the dreaded Apocalypse…

Was it so? No, it couldn't be. She wouldn't know about Apocalypse…how could she? She'd never heard of such a spell…only sorceresses used such spells…

A cackle. She grabbed at her head, her eyes shut tight as she held her hands on her head, tugging at her short brown hair.

"I will not let you take me!" she cried into the night, now aware of the darkness that swirled closer around her.

Ellone threw her covers from her sweaty body and ran to the window. She attempted to open it, one hand on her forehead to keep herself calm. The window wouldn't budge.

Another cackle. Who was laughing at her? Who was there?

"Is there someone there? Help me!" Elle cried, scampering from corner to corner. Her bare feet smacked the hard wood of the floor and finally, she retired her whining and squatted in a corner, her hands covering her face to muffle her sobs.

"Somebody help me…I don't know what's going on!" she cried between sobs. "Squall…brother, save me!" she screamed, as fear and pain took over as the darkness surrounding her overwhelmed her.

Without so much as another cry of agony, Ellone passed out on the cold floor.

………………..

Squall was laying on his stomach with his elbows, knees and boots dug as deeply as possible into the ground several hundred yards outside of Seifer's camp, which lay on the plains just outside of the Sollet Mountains near Esthar, with a pair of high powered binoculars held up to his eyes constantly scanning the camp area. He had been here since just before dawn. It didn't even appear that anyone was up yet, except for a few sleepy and forlorn appearing sentries posted in very direction on the outer fringes of the camp.

Squall had spent the night sleeping fitfully in a fifteen gil a night _hole in the wall_ in _Underground_ Esthar. He seriously hoped he didn't bring home any unwanted little visitors for Rinoa, but he purposely stayed at the scummiest place he could find, in order to keep a low profile. The tenants at the place he chose to stay were so drunk, they didn't know who they were anymore, much less pay any attention to him.

Squall had arisen at four o'clock in the morning, traveled topside and rented an automobile and drove to a mile away from Seifer's camp. He then set off on foot and arrived just before the sun came up for the day. It was beginning to grow warm and Squall wiped the perspiration from his brow to keep it from running down into his eyes. He had no idea of what he was to do once Seifer arrived on the scene, but he continued to watch diligently for any sign of Ellone or a girl fitting the description he had of Laurie.

………………..

Laurie cried out in terror in her sleep. She didn't realize she was dreaming. It was all real time to her. Great swirling clouds of purple and black enveloped her. She had no idea where she was. Suddenly she heard a woman sobbing.

"Who's there?!" Laurie screamed.

A voice in return cried out, "Squall…brother, save me!"

The clouds cleared for a second. Laurie observed a young woman in a corner sobbing. Her clothing appeared so familiar to Laurie, but she just couldn't seem to recognize her in the hideous surroundings.

"Who are you?" Laurie shouted.

The woman turned and looked at her, fear and anguish written across her features.

Laurie sat straight up from a sound sleep, her heart pounding as adrenaline raced through her body. _God_, _that was horrible_, she thought, _and who was that poor woman_?

Suddenly Laurie was struck by a twofold realization; this was the nightmare she had begun to experience as far back as New Jersey and the woman was Ellone!

"Is this why I'm here?" Laurie questioned aloud.

Remembering that her feeling of dread back home had dictated that Raine also be present, Laurie quickly recognized it _was_ why they were here…to save Ellone from something horrible!

Laurie lay back on the floor and wrapped her robe tightly around her, as she felt a sudden chill. But how were they to do that? And where was Raine?

Laurie fell back into an uneasy sleep, her mind filled with many unanswered questions.

………………..

Raine restlessly wandered around Mina's small dormitory room. She wondered how Mina and Zell were doing in Deling City and prayed they were safe. She found herself wishing Mina hadn't gone. She missed the fiery young woman tremendously and even though she had Rinoa to talk with, she wasn't comfortable sharing with Rinoa her present problem. That's why she purposely hadn't gone out to search for her and, in her present state of mind, she hoped that Rinoa didn't come searching for her. Someone had knocked on the door to Mina's room an hour earlier, and Raine had stood stock still, not even breathing, until she gratefully heard footsteps receding down the corridor. She felt more than slightly guilty, and would feel even more so if it turned out to have been Rinoa, because the ebony-haired woman had been truly wonderful to her, since her time-compression arrival from 2001.

Raine stepped from place to place, picking up Mina's personal items mindlessly and then setting them back. She even began to open drawers in her attempt to escape her agitation and suddenly found a journal laying under a neatly stacked pile of Mina's lingerie. Picking it up, Raine observed that Mina had written across the cover – _Mina's_ _Diary_…_Keep out under penalty of pain of death_…_This means you_, _Zell_! Raine dropped it back in the drawer, as if it were on fire. _I haven't stooped that low_…_yet_, she thought.

Closing the drawer, Raine crossed the room and flopped down on Mina's bed. _What am I to do_? she thought forlornly. _I love_ _Kazuya so much_. _How could I choose to leave him_? _Love_? _How could I love him_? _I know nothing about him_. Raine realized Kazuya was an enigma to her and his life a mystery.

Remembering the sweet taste of his lips upon hers and his soft embraces, Raine mused, _Is that all I need to know_? _Am I_ _overanalyzing like usual_? _But shouldn't love grow from a common ground_? _Isn't that what I've always been told_? _Love at first sight_?…_hogwash_!

Rising up from the bed, Raine paced the small room, mired deep in confusion. _Somebody help me please_, she pleaded inside her mind. _Am I supposed to never see my family again because of him_? Yes!" her body cried out to her. "Please," her soul entreated.

_But what about my novels that I'm to write_? _Am I to give that up also_?

"Intellectual vanity" her mind answered. "Can you build your happiness with books? Can you cuddle up to a dictionary on a cold winter's evening?"

_And besides that_, Raine admitted to herself, _I don't want to leave the Garden_! _I wanna stay here and become a SeeD_! _I want to pass Squall down a corridor and nod at him and receive a slight smile in return. I want to hang out with Rinoa and laugh and talk. I want to go places with Mina and I want to look at Zell from across the cafeteria table every day at breakfast. And I love Kazuya_!

Raine threw herself down again across Mina's bed and began to cry softly to herself.

Later…Raine stood up from the bed and crossed to Mina's small makeup table. Pulling a few tissues from the tissue box, she wiped her face dry of her tears. Considering and then rejecting using Mina's cosmetics, Raine crossed to the door. Flinging the door open and boldly stepping into the corridor as if into a brave new world, Raine thought desperately, _I need a sign to tell me what to do_.

And Raine immediately observed Kazuya standing patiently, at the end of the long dormitory hallway, waiting for her to emerge from her cocoon. Kazuya's face lit up in a glorious smile at the sight of her. "I thought you were in there," he cried out. "I would have waited all day."

………………..

Sunlight pouring through the open bedroom window is what initially awakened Selphie. Her head pounding with pain, Selphie groaned and sat up in bed, momentarily distracted by the sight of Irvine sleeping next to her, before she remembered where she was and why Irvine would be occupying a position he had never before obtained.

Suddenly the realization struck the shocked Selphie that she was currently bereft of any outer apparel and was wearing only underwear. Throwing the solitary sheet off the slumbering Irvine, she perceived that he also was in an extremely underdressed condition, wearing only the briefest of bikini underwear. Completely leaping to conclusions as was her wont, Selphie began to assault Irvine in his most _sensitive_ area.

"OW!" Irvine began screaming. "Selphie, stop it!"

Continuing to batter him with her two fists, Selphie exclaimed, "What did you do, you pervert?! And where is my dress?"

Irvine managed to finally roll away from Selphie and sat up quickly, guarding Selphie's _target_ with his hands.

"Calm down," he pleaded weakly, barely able to speak. "You got sick on the way home and threw up all over yourself and me. Sayoko took our clothes to be cleaned this morning."

Before Selphie could respond, a knock came at the door. "That's probably her now," explained Irvine, who was feeling a bit stronger.

Irvine began to wrap the top sheet around himself in order to journey to the bedroom door and admit Sayoko. "Oh no you don't!" Selphie protested clasping the other end of the sheet.

Thus ensured a bitterly contested tug of war over the sheet with Selphie finally emerging as the victor. As Selphie stood up from the bed and carefully wrapped herself in the sheet, Irvine retreated to the back part of the bedroom and stood with his face turned to the wall in order to save Sayoko from any nasty surprises as he had lost his bikini briefs in the scuffle.

Opening the bedroom door, Selphie was delighted to observe Sayoko standing with their clean clothes.

"Here you go, Selphie," Sayoko said while handing the clothes over. Noticing Irvine's ignominious position in the back of the room, Sayoko grinned to herself. _That Selphie sure is a_ _pistol_, she thought.

"Oh, thank you so much," Selphie gushed. "I don't know what we would have done without you."

"My pleasure," Sayoko smiled. "Watts and Zone are waiting for you downstairs," she explained and then turned and headed back downstairs.

Closing the door, Selphie turned and observed Irvine facing her. No longer filled with rage, Selphie suddenly noticed that Irvine was totally bereft of clothing and, blushing furiously, she averted her eyes.

Picking up her _Strange Vision_ which was conveniently laying near her on the floor, Selphie brandished it at Irvine and ordered him to turn his back until she had completed dressing. Irvine instantly complied, because he had felt the touch of that weapon more than once recently and wasn't in a hurry to experience that particular brand of pain again, any time soon.

Selphie quickly dressed while keeping a close eye on Irvine and, pausing at the door, ordered, "Now hurry up and get dressed and come downstairs."

Selphie left the bedroom and traveled down the stairs to the first floor. Observing Zone and Watts sitting at the dining table, Selphie crossed to them and made the necessary small talk before launching into the details of her and Irvine's mission, when Irvine stiffly walked down the staircase, as if he were an invalid. Selphie quickly explained their quest to Zone and Watts.

Zone replied, "Those _hooligans_ who you saw at the pub last night have been arriving and leaving every few days for the past two weeks. The crew that was there last evening came in yesterday morning."

"Who are they and where do they come from?' Selphie asked.

Zone shook his head. "I'm sorry. I don't have any idea. But the bartender told me this morning that he overheard some of them talking last night and they said they were returning to Esthar today."

Selphie exclaimed with some surprise in her voice, "Esthar?! That's where Squall went to search for a girl, who was kidnapped from the Garden. I wonder if they're connected?"

Turning to Irvine, Selphie ordered, "Come on, we need to find a way to get to Esthar right away."

………………..

Rinoa crept silently along the dark wing of the Garden, unsure of what she'd find. She'd never explored that part of the Garden before, so she was curious.

It was when she saw the Headmaster that her heart jumped in fright. She was not only scared that she could get caught in his area of the Garden, but she was also scared because of what he was up to. He stood in his room, in front of a mirror. Yes, it was innocent enough. Then he twirled around somewhat. He was wearing a dress!

Cid. Headmaster Cid Kramer was wearing one of Edea's long gowns, and liking it. Rinoa shook her head in shock. Edea or the others would never guess it in a million years. Sure, Irvine might, but no one else.

Rinoa giggled as silently as possible, covering her mouth with her hands as she crept away from the room, dashing as fast as possible when she reached a safer spot she could run in.

She couldn't wait to tell Squall what she'd seen.

………………..

A woman wearing a vivid multi-colored outer wrap with a hood attached swept into Laurie's cell quickly followed by Seifer. Laurie, who had been awake since the dawn, glanced hopefully when she initially thought someone had brought breakfast, then sat disappointedly for a second when she observed there was none and then sat ever alert, when she espied Seifer and realized something important might be transpiring.

The woman spoke, "My name is Sorceress Kayano and I am the reason you were brought here."

Laurie's mind was reeling; all of this was certainly well beyond her ken, since she did not come from a world that held such things as Sorceresses. "What do you want with me?" she blurted out.

Sorceress Kayano replied, "It shames me to admit, but I am not sure. I only know that my success or failure depends on you in some way. Have you remembered your dream yet?" she questioned.

Laurie hesitated for a split second, and then shook her head, but it was too late. In that split second Kayano realized she was lying.

"Come! Come!" she exclaimed sternly. "We have been most gentle with you up until now. But that could change at any second on my say so."

"Seifer!" the Sorceress commanded.

The tall young man stepped from around Kayano and picked up Laurie and placed her on her feet in front of the Sorceress, as if she weighed no more than a rag doll. Laurie noticed the Sorceress only stood a inch or two taller than she.

Kayano swept back her hood, a stern countenance offered on her normally placid features. Laurie's eyes widened in surprise as she thought, _Oh my God_! _What is going on here_?! _That's Ellone_.

Seifer, watching closely, realized that Laurie recognized the Sorceress. He was pleased; all was going right for once.

The Sorceress also discerned that Laurie had had a sudden realization concerning something and demanded, "Tell me all you know this instant!"

When Laurie didn't comply, but instead stood silently, the Sorceress raged, "Seifer, keep her tied! Don't feed her, and don't let her sleep. Deprive her of the toilet. I will show her to defy me!"

As Kayano turned and swept from the room, Laurie felt total desolation when Seifer, closing the door behind him, didn't as much as glance at her on his way out.

………………..

"So then she told me that she'd speak to me after class!" she giggled happily. 

The other Trepies around her giggled in response.

"Tamira, you're SOO lucky! I'd just die if she told me to wait after class!" another girl replied, emphasizing every possible syllable.

"Even eye contact with her is special, you know," a male Trepie said, blushing.

"Eye contact? Are you serious? You mean you don't even say hello to her? Mark, what's wrong with you? Have you lost your self-respect?" Tamira cried.

"Well…when I see her, I want to say hello…I just get so tongue tied…" Mark replied. Good save.

The other Trepies nodded in agreement. It was when they began to chatter amongst themselves that the little specks of green fell on the floor beside them.

On the wing above, Kazuya adjusted his aim. "I have to hit them…close isn't good enough."

Aiming his sling shot, he placed a tiny balloon filled with icky green mucous on the sling, and flung it at the head of a chattering Trepie.

She screamed loudly, resulting in a laugh from Kazuya.

"MALBORO SNOT FOREVER!" he cried, picking up two larger bombs and flinging them at the Trepies below. The bombs landed with a loud sploosh, and the other Trepies screamed in disgust.

"I AM THE SNOT BOMB KING!" Kazuya howled in triumph before dashing off with his sack of bombs to torture others with.

………………..

"Gross, gross, gross," Mina muttered as Zell led her through the tunnels. "Why do we have to take the sewers? Why can't we walk on the streets like NORMAL human beings?" she protested. Zell lifted a finger to his lips.

"I was here awhile ago, you know that. Someone might recognize me."

Mina snorted with laughter. "Not in that getup," she muttered. 

Zell frowned, stopping and then turning to face her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Mina giggled some more. "Nothing! It didn't mean anything! I just think that no one will recognize you with the sunglasses and stuff, you know."

Zell shook his head. "Let's just keep going."

"HALT!" Mina and Zell froze.

"Where do you kids think you're going?" A burly man walked up behind them, fastening his hand around Mina's small wrist.

Mina frowned. "Uh…"

The man, about forty in age, dressed in rather tardy clothes, looked Mina up and down, then gave Zell a look-over. "You kids coming down here to get your kicks? It's dangerous here. There are monsters," the man muttered.

Zell gritted his teeth and stepped forward, pulling Mina closer to him. "Get your hands off my girlfriend, buddy. Who are you, anyway?"

The man spat into the water, watching it flow downstream. He remained silent a moment, then grinned, his fat face lighting up immensely. "Name's Raome. Nice to meet ya," he insisted, holding out a grubby hand to Zell.

Zell shook his head. "No thanks, Mr. Raome…what are you doin' down here anyway?"

Raome scratched his head. "I'm lookin' for these two kids…I'm trying to find 'em so I can give 'em a message."

"What two kids?" Mina asked. Raome raised his eyebrows. "Two kids that kinda match your description, and are from Balamb Garden."

Mina's eyes lit up. "That's us! You have a message?"

Raome nodded happily. "Yes! General Caraway wishes to see you. He has some important information he wishes to share with you about some kidnapping. I'm not sure what's going on. But hey, don't shoot the messenger, as they say."

Mina nodded with a smile. "Can you take us to him?"

Zell sniffed. "I can get us there too, you know."

Mina grinned lightly and squeezed Zell's hand. "Yes, but this nice man will get us there faster, I'm sure of it. Besides, it's not like you know where you're going anyway. We've been walking in circles for hours."

Zell nodded in agreement. "Yeah…I guess we have." 

………………..

"Dr. Kadowaki! Quick! Quick! It's an emergency! You'll never guess what I just saw!" Rinoa cried, entering through the two sliding doors as fast as they would open.

Kadowaki frowned and looked up to the harried Rinoa, stopping to catch her breath. Next to the chair Kadowaki sat in stood Nida.

They both stared at Rinoa until she began to speak again. She pushed her raven hair from her face and panted as she spoke. "I saw…Headmaster…Cid…wearing…a…dress!" she cried.

Kadowaki's eyes bulged from her head and she rose from her chair. "My dear, are you certain?"

Rinoa nodded vigorously. "He was! It was Edea's! I recognized it, you know the long purple one-."

"With the feathers at the top?" Nida interrupted.

Rinoa nodded. "Yeah, that one! He was twirling in the mirror, and augh, it was horrible!"

Kadowaki shook her head in disbelief. "I've no idea what to say…shall we keep it a secret?"

Nida and Rinoa shook their heads in unison, smiles alighting their features. "Heck no," Rinoa said. "Get on the intercom, now!" she ordered.

………………..

It was Raine who was the busiest, laughing obnoxiously as she squeezed the tube of all it's contents. Tossing the empty tube into the wastebasket, she turned and headed out the door, pleased with her accomplishment. Whoever the sucker was going to be, she was sorry for them already.

As she headed through the hallway, sure that no one was following her, she smiled faintly. She'd pulled a great prank, and she'd be remembered for it if anyone ever found out it had been her.

However, her feelings of happiness didn't linger in her heart for long. A sadness welled inside of her as she thought of her best friend. Laurie had been kidnapped in front of her, and she hadn't done anything. She'd been unsuccessful in locating her friend, and she didn't even know if Laurie was alive. To Raine's dismay, her eyes welled with tears and she slumped to the floor in the middle of the hallway. _To be crying on a day like this_, she thought as the hot tears trailed down her face.

"Laurie…" she whispered. "Please, be safe…"

………………..

The trap door opened, and light spilled through. Mina was allowed in first. As she stepped into the room, she was greeted by a middle-aged man dressed in black.

He smiled crookedly and nodded. "Are you Mina Charleston?" he asked. She nodded. He grinned. "I am General Caraway. Please, do come in."

Mina entered. Zell, following close behind. Raome completed the group, and the trap door shut behind them.

"Zell Dincht, what a pleasure to see you again." General Caraway's voice seemed to hold some loathing or dislike of some kind as he spoke.

"Yeah, sure," Zell muttered.

"Thank you, Raome. Now, Zell, Mina, I'm sure you're wondering why I've asked you here."

Mina nodded. "It has something to do with the kidnapping of Laurie from the past, right?"

"Somewhat. I'm merely telling what I've heard. Anyway, I've heard that there are strange characters hanging around downtown Deling City, and they have secret information about this new sorceress."

Zell's eyes widened. "New sorceress? I thought Rinoa was the last one!"

Caraway's eyes narrowed. "My daughter is a sorceress?" he asked.

Zell shook his head. "We'll get back to you on that one. What about this new one?"

"Rumors have it that there is a new sorceress, and she's behind this kidnapping. We're unsure why, all that is known is that these people know more about it. I advise you to speak to them if you want to find out more."

His voice was strained. Obviously, Zell's new information had startled him.

"I trust you will find the appropriate information," Caraway finished.

………………..

It **was** rather unfortunate, really. How she'd neglected to check the seat before she sat down. Rinoa held onto the toilet paper dispenser and the napkin box and tried to pry herself from the seat of the toilet. To no avail. She was stuck.

"Help me!" she screamed for the fourth time.

What a laugh someone was going to have if they walked in and saw her there. Stuck to the toilet like some helpless fly on sticky paper. She almost laughed at the image in her mind, then remembered her situation. Clasping her hands together, she sighed in frustration. Silky black hair fell over her eyes and she didn't mind. They covered her tears.

"Help me…anyone…" she whispered after a few minutes.

Why was she so upset? This wasn't something to cry over…..was it?

_Hyne_, _I'm stuck to a_ _toilet_, she realized and began to laugh her tears away. She silenced as she heard the creak of a door opening and realized someone was entering the girl's washroom.

"Hello?" Rinoa called. The person stopped walking and remained silent.

"Hello?" Rinoa tried again.

"Yeah?" replied the person. It was an unfamiliar voice to Rinoa, but in appearance, Rinoa recognized her as a Trepie.

"Excuse me, I'm…well, I'm in a bit of a dilemma here, do you think you could help me out?"

The Trepie nodded through the crack between the door and the wall of the stall.

"What kind do you need?"

Rinoa paused and thought for a moment. "Oh! No, no. Not that kind of help..see, I'm kind of stuck to the toilet."

Rinoa heard the Trepie laugh and she angered. "It's not funny! Someone intentionally put glue on this seat! It could have been you stuck here, you know!"

The Trepie realized the truth behind the statement and nodded. Rinoa had a point.

"What do you need, then? A chisel?" Trepie joked.

Rinoa scowled. "I'll use the chisel to resculpt your face if you don't stop teasing me, you big meanie!" she cried.

Trepie silenced her giggles and sighed. "Who should I fetch for help? Commander Squall? Xu? Headmaster Cid?"

"You're not funny. Xu and Squall aren't even here," Rinoa replied darkly.

Trepie grinned. "Then I guess we've decided on Cid. I'll be right back."

"HEY!" Rinoa screamed.

Trepie giggled some more. "I'm just kidding! I'll go get the doctor. She'll know what to do. Is that okay, your highness?"

Rinoa sighed with relief. "Kadowaki is fine…please hurry.."

The Trepie nodded. "Can I at least go to the bathroom first? It's kind of what I came in here to do, you know."

Rinoa scowled some more. "Fine. It's not like I'm going to go anywhere."

………………..

"Zell, I really have a bad feeling about this…" Mina whispered, as Zell led her along Deling's darkest side streets.

"So do I, that's not stopping me from fulfilling this wish of Caraway's. We need to find out about the sorceress, Mimi. Laurie's in trouble."

Mina groaned quietly, and Zell covered her mouth with his hand quickly. "Shh!" he hissed. "There's someone there!"

Sure enough, just beyond the trees they hid behind, stood two suspicious looking people. One was dressed in a punk getup, with black hair streaked with large chunks of orange. He was dressed rather oddly, in high heels and leather, his black lipstick matching the purple eyeshadow he wore.

"Man, the crossdressers keep getting weirder and weirder…" Zell muttered.

"No kidding," Mina replied. "Welcome to Deling, home of the homos."

"Not funny."

"Since when?" Mina hissed. He clamped his hand over her mouth once again. "Shut up! They'll hear us!"

The other suspicious character was dressed much differently than the other she stood with. She was wearing a man's dark grey suit, with a tie. Her black shoes were freshly polished, and her short hair sat behind her ears.

"Cross dressing central," Zell muttered.

"…I heard that she's some woman from Esthar," the punk boy said.

The girl in the suit nodded slightly. "I've heard otherwise, Nikki. I heard she's some young kid who's the daughter of the president of Esthar, and she's been taken prisoner by some blond trench coat dude."

Zell gasped. Seifer. It had to be.

"…either way, Mariko, this sorceress has got to be strong. I also heard she can go back in time and change things around. Some wonky thing called Time Compression or whatever," Nikki explained to the girl, who was obviously Mariko.

"So, whatcha fine kids lookin' at?" came a burly voice from behind Mina and Zell.

Mina tensed with fear, and turned to face a rather large man, with a tremendous beer belly and a smelly leather jacket. His beard was greying, and he had a dark bandana on his greasy forehead. His hands were covered in fighter's gloves much like Zell's old ones, when he'd had the _Mavericks_.

"Nothing special," Mina choked out.

The man took hold of her chin and turned her head from side to side.

"Hey, she's kinda cute…mind if I take her for a ride on my bike?" he asked Zell.

Zell frowned and clenched his fists. Mina managed to catch his eye and tell him to calm down with her gaze.

"Get your hands off me, Smelly," she commanded.

The man, flabbergasted by her courage, dropped his hand from her face.

"You think you can talk to me like that? Well, let me tell you something, honey. I do things a little differently around here. You were spying on my friends, so we spied on you. Now, let's teach you a lesson. Boys, come out!"

From behind Smelly came four other burly men, nearly twice his size.

Mina raised her eyebrows. "Oh shit…" she heard Zell whisper.

"You guys want me? Come and get me," Mina taunted.

Backspringing on her hands, she grinned at the large men, and waved them to come get her. Smelly's henchman number one was the first to charge at her. With a simple lift of her leg, she managed to trip him and slam him into the ground, knocking him unconscious.

The others remained silent for a moment, in awe of this strong woman, but that didn't last for long.

"So, lil' miss, think you can handle ol' Iron Fist?" he asked in a gravelly voice. "Deal with 'ol swift kick first."

Another kick, and Iron Fist was down.

Smelly frowned. "You're good, woman. Seifer's going to want to see you alive."

Big mistake on Smelly's part. Zell's face lit up and he grinned. "Great! We have all the information we need. Thanks, Smelly. Mimi, you take that one, I'll take care of these losers."

Smelly charged at Zell, and Zell was able to get his _Ehrgeiz_ up in time to knock the guy back a few steps with a blow to the nose. Blood poured from Smelly's left nostril, and he was obviously in pain, yet in a blind rage he charged Zell again. Another blow to the head and Smelly was down. Zell kicked him a few times until he lost consciousness.

Zell turned to see Mina finish the last guy by flying onto her toes and whirling around only to knock him over with an extended leg.

"Beautiful ballet kick, Mina. Let's go before Nikki and Mariko or whatever attack. I don't want to face crossdressers tonight. I get enough of that at Garden with Cid."

Taking Mina's hand, Zell ran in the direction of the parking lot where they'd left their car. It was time to go to Esthar.


	6. One Can Hope-Chapter Six

Once Can Hope

Chapter Six

With a few hours of time and a lot of tools, some hot water and some ointment, Rinoa was pried from the toilet. She flushed quickly and then whined, as Dr. Kadowaki tended to the large red ring that had been left around her backside from having been stuck to a toilet seat for several hours.

Kadowaki smiled gently and handed Rinoa some ointment. "Try to lie down or stand as much as you can, sitting will irritate it, and it could turn into a rash." Rinoa paled, and the doctor laughed. "I'm serious. However, you should be fine in a few days or so. Just give it time to heal."

The only thing that seemed wrong with that statement was that "it" was referring to her backside.

Rinoa scowled and walked painfully to her room to take a nap.

* * *

Mina handled the car quite skillfully through the long curve and then double-clutched while coming out onto a straightaway, moving from third to fourth gear while pressing the accelerator down to the floor. In the passenger seat, Zell hung on silently, as Mina was hitting speeds between one hundred and one hundred and ten miles per hour while down shifting expertly in lieu of braking, hurtling the large piece of machinery towards Timber at breakneck speeds. He didn't want to do anything to distract Mina from her life threatening endeavor.

Zell recognized they were going faster than he had ever ridden before, when they kept consistently passing the bullet trains that sometimes ran parallel to the highway they were traveling on.

Literally flying low into the outskirts of Timber, Zell breathed a sigh of relief when Mina begin to wind the speed down to match the slower speeds of the heavier traffic they were now merging with. In a very few minutes, they would be driving into Timber.

* * *

Irvine was in the process of buying tickets for him and Selphie, when she exclaimed, "Irvine! Buy two more."

Irvine, attempting to turn to look at her, asked, "Why the hell would I do that, Selphie?"

Selphie thumped Irvine on his right shoulder blade. "Why can't you trust me just one time and do what I say without asking me why? Because Zell and Mina are headed this way and I doubt they've come to go sightseeing at the _ Amphor Pub," _ she added.

"Two more tickets to Balamb, please," requested Irvine.

* * *

Quickly leaving the train as soon as it reached Balamb, the four of them piled into a Balamb City Yellow Cab and, bribing the driver with a big wad of gil, he drove them along the narrow winding road back to the Garden at a much higher rate of speed than ordinarily. Mina complained if they would have just rented a car and let her drive, they would already be talking with Cid.

Upon reaching the Garden, after paying the driver, they ran to the elevator and rode it up to Cid's office. Stepping off the elevator, Irvine and Selphie were astonished to observe Cid holding a compact mirror up to his face and attempting to remove his excessive makeup with cold cream. Zell glanced knowingly at Mina.

As Mina reported the result of the two teams, Selphie saw that beneath the heavy makeup, Cid was beginning to break out in a bad case of teenage acne. Since she realized he was far beyond that age, she knew he wasn't doing a good job with scrubbing his face at night to rid himself of all the makeup and she advised him of that fact, once Mina had finished her report.

"Why, thank you, Selphie," Cid said kindly. Turning to Mina, he ordered, "Tell Nida to lay a course to Esthar immediately!"

Snapping up the SeeD salute, Mina replied, "Yes, squid!"

"What did you say?" Cid asked, not quite believing his own ears.

Mina answered innocently, "I said, yes sir," while Zell turned his back to hide his laughter.

* * *

When Seifer returned to tie Laurie up, he came equipped with rope of considerable strength that he used to tie her tightly to the base of the toilet.

After a couple of hours had passed, the door opened and Raijin stepped through. Speaking to Seifer, he explained, "The Sorceress wants to see you, ya know."

Seifer nodded and threatened Raijin that he would have his head on a silver platter, if he messed this up and ordered him to not talk to the prisoner. As Seifer left the room, he realized he hated leaving Raijin in charge of anything, but it couldn't be helped. He had to leave Fujin in camp to watch his back. Seifer certainly couldn't afford a mutiny at this late date.

Seifer had barely left when Laurie began to make small talk with Raijin, hoping to be able to elicit some information that could help her to understand more clearly what was occurring. Unfortunately Laurie wasn't able to comprehend much of the babble that Raijin was conveying, although she discovered that apparently he and Fujin had gone to some club in Esthar a couple of weeks previously that held a Karaoke machine.

Suddenly Seifer stepped into the room and announced, "It's time."

* * *

Zell stroked Mina's fingers with the ball of his thumb as he walked her to the library. Her first real day back on the job. Until they reached Esthar, that was. Mina waved to a few fellow librarians and stepped behind the counter.

"Well, it's been fun fighting crime with you, Zell Dincht."

Zell smiled, still holding hands from the other side of the desk. "Indeed it has, Mina Charleston. We must do that more often."

"Do what more often, or do I want to know?" Raine asked, walking up next to Zell with a grin.

Mina laughed. "Nothing special," she said.

Zell scoffed. "That's not what you said the other night," he joked.

They all laughed and Mina explained what they'd done in Deling.

"So...beating on motorcyclists. Why can't I ever come with you? You two have all the fun," Raine replied with a frown.

Zell grinned. "So, Mini, go check and see if there are any new Combat Kings, could you?"

Raine laughed. "All's back to normal, I see."

Something clicked in Raine's mind and she remembered what she'd been up to.

"I glued Rinoa to the toilet while you were gone," she announced. Mina stopped typing and Zell stopped talking to her.

"What??" they both asked in unison.

Raine nodded. "The students got a little restless, so we began with some pranks and went from there...Kazuya slimed the Trepies with his famous snot bombs."

"Oh, yeah, his famous Malboro...he's made quite the reputation from those things," Mina concluded.

Raine laughed again. "I'm going to have a real look around this library. I haven't had the chance yet." And she walked away leaving Mina to her typing and Zell to his conversation.

* * *

Xu and Laguna were waiting outside of Shumi Village in the frigid Winter Island weather. Besides already being one of the coldest places in their world, the artic wind blew in off the ocean in fifty or more miles per hour blasts causing the wind chill factor to drop into the area of thirty degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

Silently waiting for the Ragnarok, solely because they preferred to keep the icy blasts from entering their lungs, Xu felt somehow that she had missed some sort of an opportunity the previous evening, but was at a loss to explain what it could have been.

Suddenly Laguna pointed at the Ragnarok, which was coming into view against the high gray winter sky and he turned and grinned at Xu, who nodded and smiled. Five minutes later, they were gratefully in the warmth of the cockpit of the Ragnarok, as Xu directed the SeeD pilot to drop her off at the Garden before carrying Laguna on to Esthar.

The SeeD pilot, a young woman, who was gazing at Laguna, completely mesmerized at being this close to the legendary President of Esthar, who had trapped Sorceress Adel and was the father of Commander Leonhart, answered, "We have to stop by Trabia and pick up Instructor Trepe and Kasumi."

"Oh, alright," Xu muttered impatiently. She was in a hurry to return to the Garden, because she remembered the last time Cid had been left in charge without the benefit of guidance by Edea, who was still away on a spiritual retreat presently and how shocked she was, when she returned unexpectedly from her first real vacation in five years and discovered Cid attempting to pull Edea's narrow girdle up over her bra and panties, which he had already donned. That experience left a picture in her mind that she had never been able to completely forget, although she had tried.

"Well then, let's go," Xu ordered.

And less than a minute later, the Ragnarok lifted off the Winter Island snowfield and set course for Trabia Garden.

* * *

The Ragnarok set down outside Trabia Garden and next to one of the many clumps of forest scattered throughout the terrain. Quistis and Kasumi immediately came running out and quickly entered the plane in an effort to escape the cold air.

Quistis was delighted to discover Xu and Laguna aboard and quickly conferred with them regarding what she had learned. Xu sighed heavily, realizing now that Cid would be in charge of the Garden by himself for a little while longer. She could only hope he wasn't sexually acting out.

Stepping into the cockpit area, Xu ordered the young woman pilot to step down, so Quistis could set a course for Esthar double quick, chop, chop.

* * *

"Raine, you might want to get some rest before we arrive in Esthar. Go ahead and use my room if you want," Mina called to her from the desk.

Raine closed her book, a novel by someone who called herself Lily Chesterfeld, and shelved it where it had been before. She said her thanks to Mina and left the library with a yawn. Perhaps sleep was what she needed to get her worries of Laurie off her mind. She wondered what Laurie was doing in that precise moment, if she was alright...if she was alive..."No!" Raine cried out, shaking her head.

A student or two looked at her and she blushed with embarrassment. She continued to keep any bad thoughts of Laurie's situation from her mind.

Upon reaching Mina's room, Raine sighed with relief. The bed was beautiful, and it was waiting for her to lie on it. Indulge in sleep, Raine, she told herself. "You owe it to your body..." she replied, glaring at her tired reflection in Mina's dresser mirror. Hanging around Kazuya would tire anyone out.

Lying down on the incredibly comfortable mattress and curling herself into a ball, Raine sighed happily. So this was what heaven feels like, she concluded.

It was as she closed her eyes that she realized she'd seen Mina's diary lying open on the desk. Snapping her eyes open, she glanced up to see it innocently on the desk next to her. Raine shook her head. She wouldn't invade Mina's privacy..would she?

It was when she glanced at the purple-tinted page that she saw her own name. _ It's about me, _ she told herself. _ What harm could it bring? _ "It's cruel and dishonest," Raine's conscience told her.

Even as her conscience taunted her with discipline, she ended up picking up the diary. The first page it was opened to appeared interesting enough, so Raine began to read.

_ "I returned home from Deling today. Zell and I were sent there on a mission to find out more about this Sorceress who's apparently kidnapped Laurie and Ellone. I hope we find them soon. Laurie means a lot to Raine, and Elle....Squall's totally weird without her. Though they didn't speak much before, we all know that it's eating him up inside to not be able to talk with her. Squall's father is being a total idiot over this, as are many others. There's been no sign of Seifer...Zell's acting strangely...it's so weird. Things began to happen when he told me Raine fell through his wall one morning. Laurie fell through Irvine's closet, and Raine fell through Zell's wall. Is this supposed to mean anything?" _

Raine stopped reading. She let her conscience be her guide.....and flipped backwards a few pages.

_"May 3rd,  
Dance class was cancelled today. I was terribly disappointed. Zell flew the Ragnarok there fast to get me there on time. So I arrive and Helen and Janika are all leaving, muttering something about the instructor being sick. When I asked them what was going on, they mentioned something about Balamb and weird things screwing everything up. I don't know what's going on."_

"May 7th,  
Zell brought me flowers today. It was a really odd thing for him of all people to do, but sweet nonetheless."

"May 25th,  
I collapsed today. I wonder what's wrong with me. Dr. Kadowaki says it's just my excessive dancing and being tired all the time, but Zell thinks something's wrong. I don't know what to think. I can't breathe properly. I'm tired all the time. I'm running out of strength and I'm no longer hungry. I don't know what's wrong with me, and I'll admit, it's terrifying. I hope it's not some huge disease and I'll have to stop dancing or something. Haha! That would really suck!"

Raine paled. She had to read on now. Was Mina sick? Disease? Possibly. She never said anything about actually having a disease. Now she had to read on to see if Mina was alright.

_"May 30th,  
The doctor lied about the results coming next week. I got them this morning. I'm okay. Well, not really...I have mono. This really sucks. Because now I can't kiss Zell. :( Hehe. I'm so silly. Either way, he's taking care of me really well. I really really appreciate his company. He comes and visits me every day, even if I'm sleeping. I know, it's just mono, but the doctor said I'll be sleeping for a month. I'm not even sure what this sickness does to you. It just makes you extremely tired, that's all I know."_

"June 2nd,  
I did a little research on mono this afternoon. I'm really tired, so I'll have to make this quick. I might even full asleep while I write..hah, that'd look funny to a reader. :)"

Raine paled and blushed in shame.

_ "Mono is a disease, which scared me when I first read it...but it's just a little disease. A germ that attacks your throat and makes you really tired and stuff...speaking of tired, I could use a nap. Goodnight!"_

Raine closed the diary and placed it back on the desk. So, Mina had mono. Grinning, Raine wondered where she'd gotten it from. Not from Zell, because she hadn't mentioned him having it. Though, Raine hadn't read the entire part before she explained her illness.

Raine sighed, feeling horribly shameful. She lay back on Mina's bed, resting her head on the soft pillow, and turned her head to see the small, stuffed Carbuncle next to the pillow. Smiling gently as she picked it up, she held it to her chest and fell asleep with it in her arms.

* * *

Seifer held the flap open to his large, semi-permanent, floored tent as the Sorceress Kayano swept inside and sat in Seifer's canvas back chair. They had just arrived from Esthar where she had been residing, ironically enough, hidden in plain sight a few blocks away from the Presidential Palace.

The Sorceress was planning on addressing Seifer's troops, before they, with her added power, attacked Esthar. Sorceress Kayano considered Esthar to be the linchpin of the entire fight, even more so than Deling City and Galbadia. The attacks in the other areas were to begin one hour, after Esthar fell to the Sorceress's force.

Raijin rounded out the party pushing Laurie into the tent ahead of him. She had remained tied, her binds were tight and her arms and legs were already beginning to grow numb and chafe in complaint. Because of the manner in which she was bound, she was unable to sit and Raijin placed her standing in the corner of the tent, cautioning her to be silent.

Sorceress Kayano had insisted Laurie be present, because she had remained uncertain what role Laurie played in all this, but only realized that it was to be an important one in some manner.

Fujin stepped into the tent a moment later and nodded to Seifer that all was in readiness. The Sorceress stood up and slipped her hood up over her head. She stepped out of the tent, not waiting for Seifer to open the way for her.

Seifer ordered, "Come on, everybody. Let's go." And he quickly exited the tent, followed by Fujin with Raijin and Laurie lagging behind.

* * *

Quistis had relieved the rookie SeeD pilot in order to facilitate their arrival in Esthar in a more timely manner leaving her to pout in the passenger lounge and commiserate with Kasumi, who didn't figure to have any further duty at this point either. In fact, Kasumi was anxious to return to the Garden and learn if the incredible rumors she had heard about Headmaster Cid could possible be true.

After landing at the Esthar Air Base, Xu, Quistis and Laguna hurried to the Presidential Palace leaving the SeeD pilot and Kasumi to look after the Ragnarok and grouse to their heart's content in private.

As they stepped into Laguna's huge private office, Laguna noticed, with a distinct sinking in his heart, that Dr. Odine was standing and talking to Kiros and Ward.

_ Oh, no! _ Laguna thought. _ Not that wacky crackpot! _

Kiros never thought he would be overjoyed to see Laguna enter a room, but in this case he certainly was. Seizing his opportunity to break away from Dr. Odine, who was babbling some nonsense about Ellone and a new Sorceress, Kiros stepped forward and welcomed, "Laguna! Good timing. We've got all hell breaking out here!"

"Why, what is it?" Laguna asked, while stepping up to his desk where Kiros was standing. Quistis and Xu followed in Laguna's wake. Before Kiros could respond, Dr. Odine interrupted, "Vhen did Ellone begin to act strangely?"

Laguna stood and scratched his head absentmindedly wondering what Dr. Odine was blathering about now.

"Vhen?" Dr. Odine exclaimed, stamping his tiny foot in frustration.

"Oh, Ellone!" Laguna replied. "She began acting withdrawn and distant from everyone almost immediately after Squall and they returned from time compression."

"Aha! I knew it!" Doctor Odine exclaimed, "I, Doctor Odine, am a genius!"

"What are you talking about, Doctor?" Kiros inquired, suddenly inexplicably developing an interest in the conversation.

"Ellone has been taken over by a Sorceress!" declared Dr. Odine.

"You mean Ellone has been kidnapped by a Sorceress?" asked Laguna.

"No, no, you big oaf! Ellone iz ze Sorceress!" retorted Doctor Odine.

"What?" Quistis asked, incredulous. "Ellone is a Sorceress?"

"Yes," Doctor Odine replied, happily nodding his head. "In fact, Ellone is ze Sorceress who is threatening Esthar with her private army, as ve speak."

"What?" Laguna exclaimed.

"That's what I've been attempting to tell you," Kiros insisted.

"Doctor Odine, is there anything you can do to help Ellone regain her consciousness?" Xu asked.

"Surely, surely," he repeated. "I have just ze thing to exorcise ze Sorceress from Ellone, but it's in my laboratory."

"Well, did you call out the First Regiment?" Laguna demanded.

"We've been waiting for you to return," Kiros explained. "You know the Generals don't pay any attention to me. They think I dress funny."

When Ward nudged Kiros in the ribs with his elbow, Kiros turned and riposted, "Very funny - not!"

"Come on," Quistis suggested to Dr. Odine. "Xu and I will escort you to the lab ourselves."

"Zat vill be vonderful," Doctor Odine replied.

The three of them quickly hurried from Laguna's office.

Picking up the telephone from the top of his desk, Laguna barked into it. "Get me General Lee immediately. This is an emergency...I don't care if it is his quiet time!"

Kiros turned to Ward and asked, "Now where are they going?"

Ward shrugged his shoulders.

* * *

Squall had continued to lay several hundred yards outside of Seifer's camp for a matter of hours. Squall had kept his binoculars trained on the camp continuously the entire time and watched, while the sleeping camp eventually transformed into its daytime schedule. He had grown sleepy in the hot Estharian sun and was fighting off nodding with some difficulty, when suddenly he observed a _ Deling City Motor Car _ vehicle in the guise of a long, black stretch limousine pull up to the camp's perimeter and then be waved through by the on-duty sentry.

Observing Seifer step out of the front passenger side, Squall mused to himself, _ He always did know how to travel in style. _

Seifer opened the back door on the passenger side and Sorceress Kayano stepped out with her back toward Squall, followed by Laurie, still bound and tied, followed by Raijin. Squall watched as they all entered what he took to be Seifer's quarters. Completely mystified as to what was occurring, Squall continued to watch.

A few minutes later, Squall espied the Sorceress now wearing a hood, come striding out of Seifer's quarters and step forword in front of the troops, who had been assembled since Seifer's arrival in camp. He also observed Seifer step out, followed by Raijin, Fujin and Laurie. As the Sorceress stepped closer to the troops, Squall noticed that the young woman, who he assumed to be Laurie, was being held about a hundred and fifty feet behind and guarded by Raijin.

Squall wondered, _ What in Hyne's name am I gonna do now? I can hardly take on thousands of men and a Sorceress all my myself! _

* * *

When the Garden finally reached the general vicinity of Esthar, Nida had requested Cid come to the bridge, because he was in need of more specific orders regarding what to do next. As the Garden flew slowly over the plains just outside of the Sollet Mountains and Cid stood beside him at the helm, Nida greatly wished that Xu had returned, because Cid was dressed only in a bra and panties.

"What's that over there?" Cid questioned.

"Over where?" Nida asked, hardly able to tear his eyes away from the bizarre sight of Cid standing beside him.

"You have to look, Nida," Cid directed, in a resigned tone.

Glancing over in the direction Cid was pointing, Nida observed Seifer's camp and, after picking up his binoculars and looking through them, Nida also espied the solitary figure of Squall several hundred yards away from the camp.

"That's Squall down there," Nida answered.

Cid leaned down and pressed the intercom button. "Selphie, Irvine, Mina and Zell, please report to my office immediately. I repeat...Selphie, Irvine, Mina and Zell, please report to my office immediately. That is all."

Cid turned the intercom off, straightened up and ordered, "Maintain your present position, until I notify you otherwise."

"Aye, aye, ma'am...I mean, sir," stammered Nida.

As Cid turned to take the elevator down to his third floor office, Nida wondered bemusedly what the four SeeDs were going to think of Cid's new attire.

* * *

Cid stood attired in his bra and panties at the head of the long conference table in his office, while Selphie and Irvine sat on one side of the table and Mina and Zell on the other. As Cid explained why he had called the emergency meeting, Mina cut her eyes to Zell, who sat to her left and arched her eyebrow at him expressively. Zell quickly covered his mouth with his hand to stifle his laughter. Selphie sat with her mouth agape, while Irvine grinned out loud.

Once Cid had finished his explanation of their present situation, Selphie discovered her voice and demanded, "What the hell is going on here, Cid?"

"I just told you, Selphie," Cid replied in an impatient tone. "Squall is located several hundred yards outside of some sort of an armed camp and we are going to provide support for him."

"No, I don't mean that," Selphie explained. "I mean what's up here with you wearing a bra-." Irvine leaned over quickly and covered Selphie's mouth with his hand.

"Well, if there are no other questions, I suggest you all prepare to leave as quickly as possible. I'll have Nida set you down as close to Squall as possible without alerting the camp."

As Selphie continued to struggle with Irvine in an attempt to speak, the elevator doors opened and Edea stepped out.

"Cid!" Edea cried out. "What are you doing? Have you completely lost your mind?"

Cid flushed heavily. "W - When did you get back, Edea?" he stammered.

"I've been back, Cid" Edea declared. "I've been in the chapel praying to Hyne, as part of completing my spiritual retreat for the last two days, when somebody had to interrupt me because of the disturbance you are causing."

Edea crossed to Cid and grasped him by the right ear lobe and pulled him to the elevator.

"Ow!" Cid complained.

When the elevator doors opened, Edea expressed, "Please excuse me for interrupting your meeting. Plan on continuing without Cid."

And then she pulled Cid on to the elevator and rode it down to the first floor, where she planned on interning Cid in the clinic for the time being.

There was complete silence for a moment or two, after Edea left with Cid. And then Selphie filled the autority vacuum, as was her wont, by standing up and exclaiming, "Well, lets get going!"

Quickly standing also, Zell protested, "Wait a minute, Selphie. We haven't made our plans yet."

"Aw, so what? We're all experienced. Let's just go...it'll come to us as we go along. What do you think, Mina?" Selphie asked.

Mina stood up, smiled at Selphie and kissed Zell on the cheek, causing him to relax and smile to himself.

Irvine looked on enviously.

* * *

Nida landed the Garden as gently as possible considering he had cut the engines, when they were still in the air in an attempt to decrease the noise the Garden made. Selphie, Irvine, Mina and Zell exited the Garden through the front gates as soon as they were opened after landing.

"It looks as if we're about a half of mile from Squall," Selphie pointed out. "Let's get going," she directed, while beginning to jog away. Mina and Zell ran easily up on their toes, while Irvine clunked along behind them attempting to keep up in his heavy cowbody boots.

As she and Zell ran very closely to Selphie, Mina couldn't help but notice that Selphie's short yellow dress was flying up at every step, fully displaying her cotton panties to Zell.

_ That girl, _ Mina thought ruefully and mentally shook her head. _ She insists on wearing that short dress, but goes crazy if Irvine as much as attempts to lay a finger on her. _

Mina glanced at Zell as they ran along, and Zell turned and winked at her. Mina grinned in answer.

Upon reaching Squall still laying on the ground, Selphie realized she needed to be careful in announcing her presence, as all of his attention appeared to be focused on what was occurring in front of him.

Slowing down to a walk, Selphie stepped up beside him and softly said, Squall?"

"Selphie, please get down," Squall replied calmly.

Selphie immediately dropped by bending her knees and resting on them in a manner that only an extremely flexible person could do.

"I've been watching you all since the Garden landed," Squall explained. "Warn the others to stay low too. I wouldn't want them to spot us at this point."

As Mina, Zell and finally Irvine arrived, Selphie waved them down and then returned her attention to Squall. "What's going on?" she questioned.

"I'm not sure," Squall admitted. "It appears that the Sorceress is addressing Seifer's troops for some reason. By the way," Squall continued, "I haven't seen Ellone, but I think Laurie's here."

"Laurie's here?!" Selphie cried out.

"Selphie, keep your voice down," Mina cautioned, saving Squall the trouble.

Squall glanced back and slightly grinned his gratitude.

Mina nodded her acknowledgment, never knowing how to take Squall.

"I think she's here," Squall explained. "I really don't know what she looks like. Here," he said removing his binoculars from around his neck and handing them to Selphie. "You take a look. She's standing tied with rope back behind the Sorceress."

Selphie took a moment to readjust the binoculars to her eyes and then lifted them up to her eyes.

"It's her!" Selphie related excitedly. "It's Laurie."

"Okay," Squall decided. "We're gonna move in closer. We'll go one at a time and low crawl about a hundred yards and then wait for everyone to catch up. Irvine, you go last, so you can cover everyone with that buffalo gun of yours."

"I'll run point," Squall volunteered, as he began to crawl forward.

* * *

Sorceress Kayano stepped out in front of the perfectly silent crowd of Seifer's hand picked troops. As Seifer stepped forward from behind the Sorceress to exhort his men to welcome her, she lay her hand on his arm saying, "It's alright. They're not rude. They're in awe and a little frightened." Seifer nodded and stepped back to his former position.

Sorceress Kayano began to speak. "Men, I have not come here this morning to offer you anything as mundane as a pep talk. No, I have come here to assure you of victory."

The troops began to stir in some excitement.

"Yes, assure you of victory," the Sorceress continued. "How can I do that, you might ask? How can I assure you of victory over Esthar...the strongest, most important nation on Earth? The answer is quite simple...because of my personal power."

A few of the men among the lines of soldiers began to cheer.

"Yes, my personal power," Kayano repeated. "There is no one, no army and no other sorceress who can stand up to my power!" she shouted out.

More of the troops began to grow excited and to cry out in affirmation of what the Sorceress was saying.

"Now you men," Soceress Kayano continued more calmly, "are the cream of the crop. You were handpicked by General Almasy to serve under him."

Over half the men were now cheering or applauding everything Kayano shouted out.

"You are the linchpin of our entire endeavor!" the Sorceress cried out. "None of our other armies will attack until we have subdued the power of Esthar. It is all up to you. The world is there for the plucking! Are you men enough to take it?!" Kayano shouted out.

As the entire army to a man screamed out its approval of Sorceress Kayano, she stepped back silently smiling to herself.

* * *

Raine knocked on Rinoa's dorm room door loudly, smiling to herself with amusement when she heard Rinoa mutter curses.

"What?" the raven-haired beauty demanded, when she ripped the door open.

Raine smiled innocently. "It's time to go. Garden's landed."

"Go? Go where?"

Raine grinned and tugged Rinoa out of her dorm room. "Go to save Laurie."

"Again with Laurie...you know, I care for the girl's safety and all, but I was just unglued from a toilet. I can't sit down, I can't fight, I can't..."

"You can't shut up," Raine finished for her, tugging her harder. "Now come on!"

Rinoa followed reluctantly, complaining the entire way. "But...Raine! I forgot my shuriken!"

Raine's smile fell and she glared at Rinoa in impatience. "Well, go and get it! And hurry back!"

Rinoa grinned and took off, returning to a distraught Raine around fifteen minutes later. "I had to go to the bathroom," was Rinoa's poor excuse. In her left hand, she held her weapon.

"I thought you couldn't sit down," Raine replied, raising an eyebrow in questioning.

Rinoa grinned innocently. "Well, even though I'm still deathly afraid of toilets, I found a way!"

Raine sighed and rubbed her temples in agony. "I don't believe this.....Hyne or God, whichever you people believe in on this twisted planet.....help me."

Rinoa grinned happily. "Well, shall we get going?"

Raine groaned and nodded. "Yes, Rinoa. We should get going. I've said that for the past twenty minutes."

"Well, I think that we should get going, then!" Rinoa replied happily, taking Raine by the hand and leading her to the front exit of the Garden.

* * *

Laguna was pacing in his office, while Kiros and Ward stood by his desk. Laguna momentarily stopped pacing.

"Who do we have stationed by the wall?" he asked.

"The 1st, 3rd and 5th battalions, as I've already told you four times, Laguana," Kiros answered dryly.

Laguna began pacing again, back and forth and then paused again.

"There's a new Sorceress out there, you know," Laguna declared.

"Yeah, I know, Laguna," Kiros answered, nodding his head. "You've already told me that four times, you know," he added dryly.

Ward elbowed Kiros sharply in the ribs.

"Ow!" KIros protested, shooting a nasty look at Ward.

"I forgot to tell you," Kiros confessed. "One of our advanced scouts reported that Squall is out there on the plains with a small force of personnel."

"Squall's out there?! By the Sorceress' camp?!" Laguana questioned excitedly.

"That's what I just said," Kiros replied sardonically.

"The Sorceress has Ellone, you know that?" Laguna inquired.

Laguna obviously preferred to disbelieve Dr. Odine. He discovered it to be much more distressing to consider little Elle had become a Sorceress, rather then a kidnap victim.

"Yes, Laguna," Kiros answered patiently. "You've already told me that eight times."

"Laguna, where are you going?" Kirpos called out, with some alarum.

Laguna paused in his doorway and glanced back.

"I'm going to the battlefield, come on, will ya?"

And then he turned and started down the wide corridor leading to the transporter that would carry him to the city outside of the Palace doors.

Kiros look at Ward for a few seconds and then replied, "No, we'll stay here."

* * *

Xu, Quistis and Dr. Odine hurried through the streets of Esthar on their way to the lab, while the rest of the population of Esthar appeared to be running amuck in the streets. The general populace of Esthar had been particularly prone to panic, since the second Lunar Cry had fallen on their city some months before and now they understood they were under attack once again by another Sorceress.

The few military personnel and police officers that could be spared from guarding the city's entrances appeared to not be having any impact at all on the fleeing Estharians. After one man stumbled into Dr. Odine knocking him rudely to the street, Quistis reached down and helped him up.

"Zank you," he replied. "Vat iz wrong vit zese peoples?" Dr. Odine inquired, puzzled.

"They're frightened, Dr. Odine," Xu explained.

"Of me?" the doctor responded. "They have no need to be frightened of me. I am a genius!"

"No, no," Quistis replied impatiently. "They are frightened of the Sorceress."

"Ze Sorceress?" Dr. Odine exclaimed incredulously. "Ze Sorceress iz Ellone. Zhere is no need of them to be frightened of Ellone."

Xu responded, "But they don't know that! They think...oh, never mind. We're just wasting time, let's just go."

Once Quistis, Xu and Dr. Odine reached the relative safety of his lab, he began scurrying from here to there to back again like a random electron.

Stopping at one of his many work benches, he pulled open a deep bottom drawer and plunged his tiny hands into it, throwing various objects over his back as he mnuttered to himself.

"Ah, here it is," he proclaimed, pulling out something closely resembling a syringe.

"Kom over here, please," Dr. Odine directed Xu and Quistis.

After Xu and Quistis reached his side, Dr. Odine explained, "Now zis iz vat ve use to exorcize ze Sorceress from Ellone."

"What...that little thing?" Quistis questioned. "It looks like an ordinary syringe."

Dr. Odine appeared to take a much closer look at the object in his hand and explained, "It is an ordinary syringe. Vat am I thinking?"

Throwing the small syringe back into the deep drawer and then literally diving in after it, Dr. Odine emerged with something that resembled a syringe, although it was three feet long and had a deadly looking tip attached to it.

Quistis inquired, "Dr. Odine, are you sure this is safe...that it won't harm Ellone?"

"Of course it's safe! It iz Odine guaranteed," he assured her.

"Whatever that means," Quistis muttered.

"Let's just go," Xu directed, anxious to be on her way.

"Go?!" echoed Dr. Odine. "Go where?"

"Why, to the front of course," Quistis explained.

"Odine refuses to go to the front!" reposted the little man, stamping his foot in frustration.

"But you've got to go! Ellone's there!" exclaimed Xu.

"Oh, zat's different," Dr. Odine replied. "Zhen I vill go."

Xu and Quistis glanced at each other and rolled their eyes at the good Doctor's capriciousness.

* * *

In the time it took Sorceress Kayano to win over Seifer's troops, the slight force from Garden had traveled efficiently to within a hundred yards of the camp via low crawling.

"Booyaka!" Selphie softly exclaimed. "That low crawling was really hard on my knees and elbows."

Glancing over at her, even Squall was forced to feel a shred of sympathy for Selphie, when he observed the mass of raw bloody flesh that now represented her knees and elbows. Immediately crawling over to her, Mina cast cures on both areas.

"Ah," Selphie sighed in relief. "Thank you so much, Mina. I'm running low on healing magic and thought I'd better save it, if it came to a fight."

Mina smiled in return.

"What are we gonna do, Squall?" Zell asked anxiously.

"Something massive," was his laconic reply.


	7. One Can Hope-The Final Chapter

One Can Hope

By Raine Ishida and Robertdogwood@aol.com

Chapter Seven

The army transport truck that Laguna was forced to ride in pulled up right inside the fence by the Sollet Mountains, where the Estharian 1st, 3rd and 5th battalions were stationed.

Laguna was furious, because he had wanted to ride out to the front in his new Estharian metallic silver Super Ghost 840-z, but was not allowed by the military. What further maddened him was the order came via a corporal, who also insisted Laguna outfit himself in full battle tog including a helmet.

"Do you know who I am, son?" Laguna attempted to say calmly.

"Yes, sir. You're the President of Esthar."

"Then I am ordering you to allow me to drive out of here in my civilian clothes," Laguna continued, slightly agitated.

"I can't do that, sir," the corporal riposted, "I have my orders."

"Your orders!" Laguna exclaimed, finally losing his aplomb. "I am your Commander in Chief! Whose orders outrank me?" Laguna inquired sarcastically.

"My Sergeant," was the laconic answer.

"Your Sergeant?" Laguna incredulously echoed. "How could your Sergeant possibly outrank me?"

"Will you put me in the stockade? My Sergeant will," the corporal explained.

Laguna finally realized the corporal had him dead to rights. Having once been an enlisted man himself, he could never place anybody in the stockade. He began to resignedly remove his rather stylish slacks and shirt and pull on the battle gear.

But when Laguna came to the helmut, he balked again. "I'm not wearing this stupid helmet. No one will be able to recognize me."

"That's the point, sir," the corporal replied calmly. "We wouldn't want any enemy snipers blowing your head off, do we sir?" the corporal explained, wearing a slight smirk.

Laguna, in a pique of temper, jammed his helmet down hard on his head. "Ow!" he cried out.

What made the long ride out to the front even worse was that a squad of Estharian soldiers were assigned to ride with him in the small transport truck as bodyguards. Rank body odors abounded in the enclosed space. At one point, Laguna felt as though he was to going to pass out before they finally arrived.

Leaping out of the truck first, waving his arms to quickly dissipate the strong odors that were still lingering on him, he took his helmet off and looked around.

Quickly spotting General Lee, Laguna strode over to him.

"How goes it?" Laguna greeted.

Turning his attention to the President, General Lee pulled the binoculars down from his eyes and replied, "Mister President."

"To answer your question," the General continued, "it goes well enough. The enemy has a force of approximately two thousand."

"We're outnumbered!" Laguna riposted, shocked.

"Doesn't matter," General Lee contradicted. "I've been watching them closely. They're rabble...undisciplined rabble. I don't know what they're thinking of...taking us on with that group."

"There's a Sorceress out there," Laguna explained quietly.

"A - a Sorceress," General Lee stammered, all of the blood leaving his face.

"What are we going to do, Mr. President?" the General inquired, suddenly subordinate to Laguna.

"Don't worry," Laguna assured General Lee. "We have people out there."

As he spoke, Laguna stared past the fence and Seifer's camp and out on to the plains as if he could search out his son with his naked eye and learn what he was planning to do.

* * *

Squall had moved his small force down dangerously close to Seifer's camp. They were presently crouched behind some mounds of sand that had been blown by the high winds and trapped in rocks.

Squall had already assigned the parties; he chose to keep Mina and Zell with him. Squall had already instructed Selphie to be some distance away from them to the right and Irvine, the same distance, to the left. He decided he wanted their flanks covered at all times. Squall still had no idea what stance Seifer was going to assume in terms of whose camp he was really in.

Squall had just one problem that needed to be taken care of, before they could launch their attack on the Sorceress. There was an army of two thousand men that needed to be taken care of or at least preoccupied. Squall realized they would need a small army of Guardian Forces to take on two thousand men, although Diablos kept begging Squall to give him a chance. Bahamut finally had to tell him to step down.

Finally Squall decided he needed to attempt something desperate, before the Sorceress became involved with battling the Estharian forces. Squall conferred with the rest of the small group, because his idea could quite possibly end in disaster and it was only fair to allow them to know what he was considering.

After conferring with everyone, Squall decided it was worth the risk, but he certainly hoped someone was keeping a watch out for them on the Esthar side. Leaping up, Squall waved _ Lionheart _ around his head three times and set off a solitary shot and then quickly returned to the ground. His answer wasn't long in coming.

As Laguna continued to gaze far across the Sollet Plains, he suddenly detected a glint of light and heard a faraway shot and knew in his heart, beyond all reason, that it was Squall signaling for assistance.

"Binoculars," Laguna directed. After General Lee placed them in his right hand, Laguna lifted them to his eyes and searched the area, where he was certain he had observed some movement.

Discerning Squall and the rest of the Garden force laying just outside of Seifer's camp, Laguna ordered, Attack at once, General."

The General quickly relayed the order through his subordinates and the Estharian infantry troops pushed asunder the fence and poured into Seifer's camp completely catching the motley rag-tag army by surprise.

* * *

Squall, observing the Estharian troops charging into Seifer's camp, leaped up and shouted, "Let's move!"

Waving his right arm forward, Squall led the rest of the battle party past the startled sentries and right into the area behind the Sorceress, who was glancing around confused, apparently searching for Seifer, who was nowhere to be found.

Just as he was beginning to speak to Sorceress Kayano, Squall was greatly startled to observe Raine and Rinoa running along the far perimeter of the camp toward the back, where they were ducking and dodging the troops of both armies, who were engaged in mortal combat.

_ Great Hyne! _ he thought, _ What the hell are they doing here? _

Sensing someone behind her, Sorceress Kayano whirled quickly, as Zell and Mina cast shells on themselves. Forming her lips in a sneer at the three young warriors standing in front of her, as though she smelled something foul on her upper lip, the Sorceress questioned, "So what do we have here? Some rotted seeds from a run down Garden?"

As Mina cast shell over Squall, Zell focused an aura over the Commander. Squall stood radiating a golden glow emanating from everywhere on his body, as he waited for Irvine and Selphie to prepare themselves.

Selphie struck at the Sorceress with her nunchaku, hoping to place her asleep, as she had Edea the second time they fought her.

"Ow!" Kayano cried out, now noticing for the first time that Selphie was standing to her left.

The Sorceress immediately concentrated _ Maelstrom _ on the usually lively teenager, bringing her quickly to her knees in pain and agony. If she hadn't been protected by a magical shell, the spell could have brought her to near death where Kayano could have easily completed the horror of an early grave for Selphie.

Completely panicking, Irvine began to shoot wildly at the Sorceress while calling out, "Selphie! Are you alright?" his concern evident in his shrill tone.

"Calm down, Irvine!" Mina shouted. "You're going to hit Selphie!"

Finally understanding the logic of this in his almost total panic, Irvine ceased his firing.

Sorceress Kayano returned her attention to the three young mercenaries standing in front of her and began to chant in a low tone. Understanding intuitively what was occurring, Mina warned, "Squall, she's drawing _ Apocalypse." _

_ Apocalypse! _...the second most deadly magic known in the universe. As Zell fingered a Mega Elixir in his pocket to make certain he was prepared, Squall, still glowing golden, readied his savage attack.

* * *

Quistis' face was extremely flushed and it was not all caused by the hot Estharian sun; no, not by a long shot. The blonde instructor was extremely frustrated...no, that wasn't it. She was damn mad, she decided.

They had been riding around the Great Plains of Esthar for the past hour searching for the battle field. _ Man, if they ever get wind of this back at Garden, we'll never live it down, _ thought Quistis.

"That's _ Tear's Point _ over there," Xu pointed out.

"I know it's _ Tear's Point!" _ the blonde woman snapped.

"Well, if you know so much, why are we lost?" riposted Xu.

"I didn't say I knew where we were going. I just said I knew where we are," Quistis explained.

Dr. Odine had been in the back seat of the rental for the entire trip singing something off key that he insisted was an old Estharian folksong.

"Will you please stop that horrible caterwauling?!" the blonde SeeD demanded.

Xu cautioned, "Don't take your ill temper out on Dr. Odine. It's not his fault you're lost."

But actually it was. When they first exited the city on one of the many highways leading to the outlaying areas, Dr. Odine had insisted they take exit 59. This turned out to be extremely mistaken. It should have been exit 95.

_ So now we're driving around 'Tear's Point,' instead of having already reached the front line! _ thought the fuming Quistis.

Slightly turning her head towards Dr. Odine in the back seat, Quistis muttered an apology while attempting to shift from second to third gear in an attempt to increase their speed. Because she was distracted by her irritation and her attention being divided by the apology to the good doctor, the blonde SeeD did not have the clutch pushed all the way in and a horrible grinding noise sound emanated from the rental car.

"Hey, Quistis!" Xu protested. "Why don't you grind me a pound? What are you trying to do - burn the clutch out and leave us stranded out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"Well - you're the one who was too cheap to rent an automatic," Quistis retorted, "I haven't driven a stick shift in a long time."

Xu replied in a dignified tone, "Quistis, that sort of attitude is going to prevent you from ever moving up above instructor. It is always our responsibility to cut costs and save the Garden money, whenever we can."

"Oh, hogwash," the blonde instructor muttered.

Xu flushed angrily, although before she could respond, Dr. Odine spoke from the back seat. "Ladiez, pleaze calm down."

Both Quistis and Xu exclaimed in unison, "You shut up, Dr. Odine!"

As Dr. Odine settled back in his seat in the back of the auto, the blonde-haired driver noticed tiny puffs of white smoke and heard, faintly in the distance, the sounds of armed conflict off to her left. She aimed the car in that direction and sped across the Great Plains of Esthar as everyone fell silent.

* * *

The sounds of the metal of swords and other various weapons clashing together was almost unbearable for Raine.

"We need to find Laurie!" she cried desperately back to Rinoa, whose hand she held tightly on to.

"Yeah, and I wouldn't mind finding Squall!" Rinoa cried in return.

Raine had spotted Irvine and Selphie up at the front of the battle a few minutes earlier, but for their safety, she'd chosen not to say anything. Raine felt a yank on her hand.

"Raine! Look, it's Laurie!"

Raine's eyes followed Rinoa's pointed finger to a girl who very much looked like Laurie. She was hidden, and appeared to not know much of what was going on.

"We have to get to her!" Raine cried.

Rinoa tugged Raine. "This way!"

Unknown to Raine, but Rinoa had begun to glow. She quickly cast protect over the two of them.

"In case we get hit while we run," she explained to Raine.

Reaching Laurie's location was much harder than Raine thought, but from the way Rinoa ran to her, she was positive they'd make it to her in time.

"Laurie!" Raine cried out.

Laurie heard her name and looked around frantically. Rinoa clapped her hand over Raine's mouth.

"Don't let anyone hear you calling to her!" she hissed frantically.

So, Raine waved to Laurie as they ran further. Reaching Laurie after a few more minutes passed, Raine released Rinoa's hand and embraced her friend for a very long time.

"I was so worried!" she cried, her eyes welling with tears.

Laurie sniffled and pushed Raine away. "There's something important I have to tell you both!" she insisted.

Pulling Raine and Rinoa closer, Laurie peered around nervously. Glancing at the battlefield, her eyes fell on Squall as he attacked a woman with a large hood that hid her face.

"It's about that woman," Laurie started, pointing to the hooded figure.

Rinoa's eyes widened. "Squall's there!" she cried.

Laurie shook her. "Yeah, I know. That's why we have to get to him!"

"Why?" Raine asked, squeezing Laurie's hand.

"Because that woman is a Sorceress!"

"What?" Rinoa asked, immensely confused. Clasping a hand over the rings on the chain around her neck, she wasn't prepared for what Laurie said next.

"That Sorceress is Ellone."

Raine paled. "What? Squall doesn't know that?!"

"No," Laurie replied, shaking her head sadly. "He can't see her face, and he has no idea he's attacking his own sister. That's why this is a problem."

"What are we going to do?" Rinoa asked, her eyes full of anguish and concern.

"We need someone to constantly scan Elle, to make sure they don't kill her," Laurie explained.

"I don't get it.....why?" Raine asked.

Laurie smiled. "We need to have her down at about 10 Health Points - Wait, why explain this to you when I can explain it all later."

Raine frowned. "I still don't get it."

"We need to get to Squall, right now. That's the only thing that I'm worried about. We can do the rest later!" Rinoa insisted. Grabbing Laurie's hand, she quickly cast Protect over her. "Let's go."

* * *

This run was much more difficult. Between dodging magic attacks and physical attacks, they still had a long field to scale.

"What do you intend to do when you get to him?!" Raine cried over the clashing sounds of the weapons.

Laurie nodded to herself. "We need to tell him the Sorceress is Ellone and go easy on her."

"That's your plan?!" Raine cried out.

Laurie shot her a sharp look. "That's not even the tip of the iceberg of my plan, Raine. Now be quiet, we need to concentrate."

Raine, feeling rather insulted for having been yelled at, shut her mouth and followed closely behind.

Laurie had grabbed a few daggers from the hands of some defeated soldiers, and given one to Raine. "We need to be able to defend somehow. Rinoa, you can use your magic, right?" she'd asked. Rinoa nodded confidently.

A few meters from Squall's view, Laurie told Rinoa to yell at him. "He'll recognize your voice, Rin. Raine and I haven't really spoken with him."

"Alright..." Rinoa replied.

Drawing in a breath to yell as loud as she could, she yelled for Squall. He turned in her direction, confusion written about his face.

"SQUALL!" Rinoa repeated, refraining from allowing her presence to become TOO well known, she nodded to him. He nodded in return, and she knew he saw her.

"Squall, listen to me, you can't kill that woman!"

"She's a sorceress!" he called back.

"She's Ellone!!!" Rinoa cried.

He froze, frowning. "What?"

"You heard me, Squall! That woman, the Sorceress, is Ellone! You can't kill her! Listen, we're going to come closer, so keep the attacks as low as possible, and try status ailments on her! Please, don't argue, just do it!"

Squall nodded, unsure of how to take this new information, but quickly instructed the other SeeDs around him to do what Rinoa had just told him, keeping the information about Ellone to himself.

Rinoa turned to Laurie who nodded. "Well done, now we have to get closer. Rinoa, you have plenty of Scan magic, right?"

Rinoa nodded in reply, "I always do."

"Excellent. We have to get closer."

"Okay...."

Taking the girls' hands, Laurie ducked blows from many other soldiers and they reached their destination. Taking refuge behind Zell and Mina, who were prepared to cast more Sleep and Blind spells, Rinoa cast Scan on the Sorceress. Reading the results, she cried out, "Squall!"

The Sorceress looked around. "More of you? Useless, annoying little flies! I'll exterminate you all!" she shrieked.

"Rinoa, what is it?!" Squall demanded as he lifted his _ Lionheart _ to deal another defensive blow.

"She's strong! She has well over one hundred thousand health left! Keep attacking!"

Zell turned his head, as did Mina. "What are you doing, Rin?"

"Laurie has an idea," she explained quickly.

Mina smiled. "Can we help in any way?"

"Yeah, attack her until Rinoa gives the next instructions," Laurie replied.

Attacks both physical and magical were dealt within seconds. Raine stood cautiously as Rinoa scanned the Sorceress once again.

"Fifty thousand!" she cried to Squall, who nodded, preparing for another attack.

"Cast _ Aura _ on me, Zell!" he commanded.

Zell grinned. "Right away, sir!" he joked, casting the familiar, yellow-glowing spell on his Commander.

"Go easy, Squall!" Rinoa cried in alarm.

"Relax, Rin!" he called. "I can handle it!"

To his despair, as everyone else's as well, the Sorceress grinned as she raised her hand in the air. "Curaga!" she called. A green glow surrounded her, and Rinoa scanned her again.

"Squall! Go for it! She's at 85 thousand!"

Squall readied his gunblade for his devastating blow, _ Renzokuken. _ The Sorceress was doubled over, glaring at the SeeDs from what they saw of her face under the hood.

"Rin, what are we at?" Irvine called.

"Fifteen thousand!" she replied.

Irvine nodded and readied his _ Exeter. _ "Dark Shot should take care of her!"

Shooting her numerous times, watching Rinoa's face as she scanned the woman again and again, he was told when to stop. The Sorceress was now blinded, poisoned, silenced and slow.

"Ellone!" Rinoa cried. "We know you're in there! Don't let the Sorceress win! We're here!"

The Sorceress who was controlling Ellone writhed in pain, falling to her knees. "You...Kurse...you....all of you..."

She fell to the ground with a thud, her hood flying off.

Zell's eyes flew wide. "Sis?!"

Squall rushed forward and scooped Ellone into his arms. "Sis, wake up..."

Casting Cure on her, her eyes fluttered open. "Squall..." she whispered, tears welling in her chocolate-colored eyes.

He smiled faintly. "Sis, are you okay?"

She smiled lightly in return and nodded to the best of her ability. "I tried...I tried to fight it...but she was so strong..."

"Save your breath, Elle. You can explain it to us after you rest some more, okay?" Selphie said, taking Ellone's hand in hers.

"Selphie...Squall, who else is here?" Ellone asked.

Selphie glanced around at the people surrounding her. "Zell, Irvine, Squall, Quisty...we're all here, Elle."

"Take me somewhere safe..." Ellone whispered before passing out in Squall's arms.

* * *

"You mean to tell me that she is still at risk of defeating us?" Headmaster Cid questioned alarmingly when Squall told him what Ellone had informed him.

"Yes, she is...but she doubts the Sorceress will win next time. Either way...Laurie has an idea of what we can do to stop that from happening."

"This Laurie from the past is very resourceful, don't you find?" Cid asked, glancing into a compact mirror he held in the palm of his hand before adding, "Is there any lipstick on my teeth?"

Squall held back his laughter as he saluted the headmaster. "I'll report back if the idea proves fruitful."

* * *

"So, what exactly are we doing?" Raine asked as the group of SeeDs sat around Ellone in the Garden's infirmary.

Laurie pondered for a moment. "If Ellone has the strength, I'm thinking she should send her Sorceress powers into Rinoa."

"What?" Rinoa asked, her attention caught by the mention of her name.

"It makes perfect sense, Rin," Zell replied. "When Matron got rid of Utlimecia, her powers were sent into you. Same with Adel."

Rinoa frowned. "I'm so dangerous, though..."

Ellone patted Rinoa's knee. "It's not a problem, Rinoa. I too have an idea. If I can send the powers into you, I can seal it deep within you, never allowing it to escape. It's a good plan, I feel it will be successful enough, don't you?"

Rinoa hesitated. "What if it doesn't work?"

"Am I hearing Ms. Go-for-it without thought saying what if?" Irvine questioned.

Rinoa blushed slightly. "It is a good plan," she agreed, "but what if it doesn't work?"

Ellone squeezed the raven-haired beauty's hand. "It will work, Rinoa. Trust me."

* * *

It was hard for Ellone to summon her powers, as she was still weak, but she managed to summon enough. It drained almost all of her energy, to pass her power to Rinoa.

Rinoa took the power willingly, unsure of what to do. "Elle...? What do I do?"

"Wait a moment...I need to gather strength to seal it away."

Rinoa waited, not liking the feel of the dark power stirring within her petite frame.

"Please hurry," she whispered, closing her eyes.

Ellone held out her hands, concentrating deeply as she held her hand over Rinoa's head. She was sealing the dark power, once and for all.

When she'd finished sealing the power, both women fell to the floor. The others, who had been instructed to stay back to avoid getting any power, rushed forward. Squall wasn't sure which young woman he should attend to, his sister or his girlfriend. Rinoa assured him she was fine and let Selphie help her up as she insisted Squall take his sister.

"She needs rest," Rinoa demanded.

Squall helped Ellone stand up, and led her back to the infirmary where she could get some rest. "It'll be okay, Sis. We're all here to take care of you," he murmured soothingly before squeezing her hand as she fell asleep, a gentle smile resting on her lips.

"Goodnight, Sis."

* * *

Squall sat at his desk in his large office befitting his rank as Commander with papers strewn messily over his desk, while Rinoa stood in the center of the room.

Squall asked, "Why don't you sit down and relax? And why are you limping? Were you injured in Esthar?"

"Yeah, I'm injured," Rinoa responded irritably. "But it wasn't in Esthar. It was in the bathroom here."

"Rinoa," the dark-haired man inquired patiently, realizing she had just been through a tremendously draining emotional and physical ordeal. "What are you talking about?"

The ebony-haired young woman proceeded to recount to him the entire nightmare of being glued to the toilet. The further Rinoa went into the details of the her experience, the more amused the Commander became until finally he couldn't control himself and a guffaw escaped his usually brooding lips.

"Oh, you think this is funny!" the Deling City beauty accused. "I'll show you how funny it is."

Squall quickly stood up and crossed to Rinoa to comfort her and also repair his _ faux pas. _ Meanwhile Rinoa had removed her blue skirt and pulled down her black shorts and blue panties to display her red inflamed appearing bottom with the outline of the toilet on it to his astonished eyes.

"There!" the ebony-haired woman emphasized. "Do you still think it's funny?!"

"Rinoa!" the blue-eyed man protested. "We're in my office!" And then he burst into further laughter angering Rinoa even further.

"Oh, relax Squall," she retorted. "It's not Friday night. You don't have to do anything."

The office door opened and Quistis and Selphie stepped inside. "Squall, I-," the blonde instructor began to say and then stood nonplussed at the scene in front of her. Quickly raising her right hand to her mouth, Quistis covered her laughter, having just heard the story of what had occurred in the Garden in their absence.

Selphie rushed to Rinoa's side and offered a slight hug. The energetic young woman cooed, "Oh, you poor thing. We just heard, it looks really painful."

"It is," the ebony-haired woman agreed.

Observing that Zell had just approached the doorway, Squall realized this situation had already gotten well out of hand. Moving quickly to prevent Zell from entering the room, the dark-haired man pushed the excitable SeeD back into the hallway, while closing the door behind him.

"What's going on, Squall?" Zell demanded.

"Girl talk," Squall responded. "Trust me, you wouldn't want to know."

* * *

"Take her hand, and I'll start Time Compression," Ellone instructed late that afternoon. Kazuya stood to the side, a small smile lighting on his lips as he lifted his hand to wave goodbye to Raine. With her free hand, Raine waved back, then wiped her tears with her wrist.

She felt Laurie's gentle hand squeeze hers, and she looked at her, only to see her friend's eyes were also filled with tears.

"It's time to go home, Raine," she whispered. Raine squeezed Laurie's hand back and shut her eyes for a brief moment. Opening them, she stared into the eyes of everyone she'd known earlier as characters in a video game. Zell, Squall, Rinoa, Irvine, Selphie, even Seifer...and now she was being sent back into the past by Ellone.

This was too unreal.

A strange glow surrounded both Laurie and Raine and they both felt funny as they slowly grew transparent. The others lifted their hands in farewell as their new friends disappeared.

Time Compression was just as scary as Raine and Laurie remembered it. Swirling masses of darkness, pools of memories, terrifying feeling. What made matters worse was for the second time, Laurie and Raine were separated.

Raine was terrified as she swirled through the blackness of what she knew and figured to be 'time' itself.

"Laurie!" she cried out every so often. It wasn't long before a strange sensation covered her entire body and she felt herself falling.

"Oof!" she cried as she landed with a thud on an oh-so-familiar floor...Glancing around the tiny floor she sat on, she realized she couldn't see anything. _ A closet? _ she asked herself, before reaching forward and pushing the door open. Inside, was a familiar room, a familiar punching bag, a familiar T-board against the wall...and Zell jumping on the bed.

"Zell!" Raine cried out, drawing her hands to her face.

Zell stopped bouncing and mimicked her movements. "Raine?!"

"What are you doing here?!" They cried in unison.

Zell frowned. "This is my room, Raine..."

"So...then what am I doing here?" Raine questioned.

"That's a good question. What ARE you doing here? Didn't Elle send you home? Where's Laurie? Is she in there too?"

Zell jumped off of his bed and crossed his room to peer inside the closet.

"We got separated during Time Compression.....again. It always happens, it happened the first time we were here."

"Something I won't forget for a long time..." Zell replied, laughing to himself. "Either way we need to find out if Laurie's still here, or if something went wrong or whatever...come on, Raine. We have to find Mina."

* * *

Squall was shocked to see Raine being led by Mina to the bridge. "Commander, there's something wrong. We need to find Ellone. Where is she?"

The silent SeeD shrugged. "I don't know, she'll be around here somewhere," he replied, raising a questioning eyebrow at Raine, who blushed.

"Time Compression didn't work..." she explained.

He nodded. "I suggest you check the library. Mina, ask around. She'll had to have been there sometime today."

"How long was I gone for?" Raine asked as she, Mina and Zell, travelled to the first floor of the Garden in the elevator.

"You were gone for a week. It's been a week, Raine," came Mina's tired response.

"A week of floating through nothing and ending up in Zell's room."

"Again?" Mina asked, smiling.

Zell nodded. "I was bouncing on my bed this time too, just like last time...it's all too weird..."

Lucky for them, Kazuya was waiting for the elevator. When the doors opened, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"Either my eyes are playing tricks on me and I'm dreaming, or you're a cute SeeD student who resembles my girlfriend perfectly," he announced.

Raine blinked. "Hey Kazuya, I'm back..."

He swept her into his arms. "Why?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Mina and I figure Time Compression went wrong...we're going to find Elle right now."

"You mean you want to go home?"

"I miss my family, Kazuya..." she replied quietly.

Mina placed a reassuring hand on her back. "It's alright, Raine. We'll get you home."

Kazuya took Raine's cold hand in his and walked with her silently to the library.

"Raine, Kazuya, you look for her in the back, okay? I'll ask around here," Mina instructed.

The teenagers did as they were told, and to no avail. Raine spotted Rinoa, who greeted her with a large hug before asking what happened. Explaining the situation, Rinoa suggested they check the infirmary.

"By the way, Rin," Raine added. "How's that end of yours feeling? Better?"

Rinoa's cheeks reddened as she looked at her shoes, which suddenly fell interesting. "It feels better now...thanks..."

Kazuya frowned. "What's goin' on?"

"Long story," Raine and Rinoa both said, smiling in unison as they spoke.

"Let's just go to the infirmary, okay? And Raine, I think we should bring Zell. You know Mina will want to check the cafeteria next, and if they go, Mina will be stuck with Zell there forever. Hotdogs are on sale today."

"Why isn't he already there?" Rinoa questioned, tucking her hands behind her back.

"I fell through his closet, so he was a bit sidetracked this morning," Raine explained.

Rinoa nodded in understanding. "When you find Elle, find me so we can say goodbye again. Okay?"

Raine agreed and took Kazuya's hand as they walked off to explain the situation and suggestions to Mina and Zell.

* * *

They found Ellone in the quad with Selphie. "What's the deal, Elle?" Raine questioned.

Ellone smiled secretly to herself as she watched Selphie's jaw drop. "What's going on?" she cried out, rushing over to hug the familiar friend.

"Elle didn't send me home..." Raine whispered, and Ellone nodded in agreement.

"I knew you didn't want to return, Raine. Why do something against your wishes?" she replied.

Raine's expression was hurt as she felt Kazuya squeeze her hand. "Did you really not want to go home?" he asked.

"I can't leave you guys..."

"We started out as video game characters to you, now look what's happened!" Selphie replied happily.

Raine couldn't help but laugh. How could she have ever been repulsed by this adorable person? "Selphie, I'm sorry," Raine said, as she hugged her again.

Selphie frowned in confusion, but Raine shook her head. "Don't ask; it's complicated."

"So...Elle, why didn't you send her home?" Kazuya asked.

"We established this already," was the answer.

"Still, tell me!" he demanded.

Ellone rose from the platform she sat on and walked over to the group of people.

"I knew she didn't...I could feel it. She didn't want to return home; Kazuya, she was focused on this place as I sent her through Time Compression."

"Is Laurie safe?" Raine asked.

Ellone nodded. "To the best of my knowledge, she made it home alright. That's the only problem. She's not going to know where you are, Raine. It might not have been a good idea to keep you here."

"But...you can't just keep her and then send her away again? Stop playing with my emotions!" Kazuya cried out extravagantly, causing the group to laugh at him.

"Kazuya, I'm sorry...as much as she wants to stay here...she can't. It's not...it's playing with fate, actually."

"All those books in the library..." Rinoa concluded.

"What?" Raine asked.

Rinoa pulled a book from behind her back. Opening the book to the back part of the jacket, she showed Raine what appeared to be a picture.

"That's me..." Raine whispered, running the tip of her finger over the picture. It depicted her to be approximately in her mid-twenties, and the biography stated "...has written over thirty books?" Raine questioned.

It's you, Raine...you have to go home, you have to write these books. If you stay here, you'll not only tamper with time...but these books will disappear."

Raine sighed. "I don't want to go home, you guys...does anyone understand that?" she whispered.

Kazuya tightened his arms around her. "I understand."

Ellone nodded. "I understand you don't want to...but you understand that you must."

"Yes...unfortunately, I do..."

Her expression was so pained, so sad, that Ellone took pity on the young woman. "I'll give you two hours to spend with everyone."

* * *

Laurie searched her closet, her room, her house, her neighborhood, frantically.

"Raine?!" she'd scream. _ Where was she? Did she make it home? _

Wiping frustrated tears from her cheeks, Laurie retired to her room for the night. _ Maybe she did make it through, _ Laurie thought as she pulled her covers to her chin. _ She probably landed somewhere else...her own home, perhaps... _ Laurie's mind tormented her as she attempted sleep, which proved to be impossible.

_ Maybe she ended up in Beijing or Sydney, Australia, _ her mind sneered. Laurie clapped her hands over her ears. "Shut up!" she cried. "Raine's...she's fine! She's back in Canada! She'll call me tomorrow and tell me everything's alright!"

_ I'll bet she's somewhere in Alaska.....though she may be from Canada, she's not used to THAT kind of cold... _ Laurie's mind refused to stop taunting her, and she got up, wiping tears from her eyes with frustrated fists.

"Raine..." she whispered into the darkness of the night, staring out of the window, up at the sky that was sprinkled with stars. "Where are you?"

* * *

The loud music from the Karaoke machine was almost totally overwhelming; not to mention, the equally loud off key singing by Raijin to the latest hit of the _ The Deling City Marauders. _ As Seifer sat across the small cocktail table from Fujin, who was perusing the _ Estar Today _ newspaper want ads, the blond warrior wondered idly how she could concentrate in such a din.

"See any jobs for an out of work Sorceress' Knight?" asked the large young man.

Fuijin glanced up, shook her head and offered a slight smile before returning to her task. Even Fujin with her loud voice wouldn't attempt to speak over tthe level of sound in the Estharian bar.

Actually calling the run down building a bar was giving it too much credit. It was more like a hole in the wall than an actual establishment. But Raijin loved the Karaoke machine and Seifer loved that no one important would ever show up there by accident.

As Fujin continued to search the classifieds for employment opportunities, Seifer sat back totally relaxed. _ Something will turn up, _ the former Garden student thought. _ It always does. _

Remembering the last time they were in this situation a few months earlier, Seifer recalled the day he discovered Ellone, dazed and alone, wandering the streets of Esthar in her bare feet claiming complete amnesia. The ever enterprising young man took her to their apartment, fed her and then put her to bed for the night.

Seifer realized that Ellone could represent a surefire way out of the trouble for him that he was currently in with most of the nations in the world following his role in the Ultimecia fiasco. Even Galbadia was searching diligently for the blond young man, so he could stand most of the gaff at the upcoming war crime proceedings against them. But he could hardly just waltz into the Estharian Presidential Palace with Ellone on his arm, could he?

Imagine his surprise the next day, when Seifer awoke to find, instead of Ellone, there was a full fledged Sorceress in his apartment who said she was searching for a knight.

Although there apparently had been a happy resolution to the situation for everyone involved, Seifer was somewhat disappointed that he hadn't seen any signs of forgiveness coming from anywhere for him and his close friends, or even any recognition that anyone knew the part he had played in Ellone's rescue.

An extremely frightened appearing, young man dressed in a Esthar Union uniform timidly approached the table and stammered in a quavering voice, "A - Are you Seifer Almasy?"

When Seifer nodded in the affirmative, the young man thrust a registered letter into his hands and said, "Please sign here." The blond man signed the receipt and the messenger fled the bar, happy to be unharmed.

Ripping the envelope open, Seifer read the contents and then threw his head back in a hearty laugh. Fujin glanced up in confusion and Raijin approached the table. "What is it, ya know?"

Looking at a Garden Bank draft for fifty thousand gil and signed by Cid Kramer, Seifer murmured, "Well, whatta you know...the Headmaster came through."

"Hey, bartender!" the blond man called out, waving the check in his hand. "Set 'em up and keep 'em coming. We're gonna party tonight!"

* * *

Kazuya didn't say anything for a long time. He sat and held Raine silently, stroking her fingers with his thumb.

"Raine...it's been so much fun having you here...if you could stay-."

"Kazuya," she interrupted. "Don't. Don't start, I don't ...want to feel guilty. I have...to go back, or else...I mean, who knows what Laurie and I have already done to wreck history."

"It'd be pretty funny if your screwing up Time Compression caused something to go wrong and our world merged with yours."

"Yeah..." Raine whispered. "Funny..."

Kazuya slapped himself on the forehead. "I'm sorry, Raine...I don't mean to be so down and stuff; it's a bad habit...I guess it's how I get rid of nerves.

"It's okay, Kazuya..."

"Have you seen Rinoa yet?"

"Yeah...we had a really nice talk, I'll miss her a lot..."

Kazuya smiled lightly and stroked Raine's cheek. "I'll miss you, you know."

"And I'll miss you more than that," she shot back teasingly.

"Oh shush."

"Sorry," she replied, leaning her head against his shoulder.

Kazuya jumped as his cell phone rang. It was Mina. "Sure...yeah, okay...right...bye."

"It's time to go, Raine," he concluded.

* * *

Ellone held her new friend tightly. "I'll miss you, Raine. Even though you were fun to tease with the whole Time Compression mix up."

Releasing Ellone, Raine smiled in return. "You'll send me to Laurie's house, right?"

"Of course. Make sure it's not Zell's closet. If it is, there's something wrong with me and you'll be stuck here."

"Send her to Zell's closet!" Kazuya shouted out. Raine laughed softly and received hugs from everyone.

"I'm going to miss you...all of you," she whispered, blowing a kiss to Kazuya and waving to the others as the familiar glow surrounded her.

"Goodbye....."

* * *

Laurie sat up immediately as soon as she heard the thump. "Raine?!" she asked, out of habit. A groan of protest, and then a muffled "Yeah, it's me."

Laurie cried out excitedly and jumped on Raine. "I was so worried!" she cried.

Raine sat still for a moment, realizing that Laurie was in tears. "I was...worried too..." Raine whispered, stroking her sobbing friends' hair.

"It'll be alright..."

"Did you see them all?"

"It's a funny story, actually...I ended falling through Zell's closet again."

"Was he in his boxers?" Laurie joked.

Raine laughed and shook her head. "No, but he was jumping on his bed."

"As usual," Laurie replied, leaning back against her pillow. "Did Kazuya give you a goodbye kiss?"

Raine blushed in the darkness, but Laurie could still tell. "Did he?" she demanded.

"Yeah..."

"And?" Laurie pushed, shaking her friend's hand violently.

"And what?" Raine asked, blinking several times as Laurie burst into laughter.

Leaning forward to hug her friend again, she smiled. "I missed you, Raine. I was scared when we got separated during Time Compression...last time that happened..."

"You were kidnapped, and...a Soceress took over Ellone."

"Hard to believe, eh?" Laurie whispered.

Raine cocked her head. "What?"

"We just spent a long time with the characters of Final Fantasy VIII. Is that possible?"

"We can prove it."

"Not really..."

"You just HAD to take Irvine's clothes back to him, didn't you?" Raine joked.

Laurie laughed and nodded. "You know what he's like!"

"Yeah...Can we talk about this in the morning?" Raine suggested. "I'm tired...and I'll bet you are too. You look like you haven't slept in days."

Laurie nodded. "We haven't. Here, your bed is set up and stuff...we'll talk in the morning. If this was all a dream, I'll kill myself."

"You mean coming home? Coming home was definitely a dream. Come on, Laur. You know we'll be back there when we wake up tomorrow."

Laurie sigh, leaning into her pillow and pulling the blankets to her chin. "One can hope..." 


End file.
